22 Training for the Night

Kaden stood in the middle of the dojo's training room in a staggered stance, holding the sword out before him with both hands.

Like he had practiced thousands of times, he ran through the sword form, displaying his intimate familiarity with it.

As he practiced, the door opened and Damien walked in.

"Where'd you get that?" Damien asked, referring to the sword.

"Traded for it," Kaden slid the sword into the scabbard on his back.

"Ahh I see, the black market?"

"Yeah," Kaden nodded, smiling.

"The city will be shutting that down soon, too many illicit goods. Don't go back there."

"Understood."

Kaden didn't mind agreeing to not go back, he'd already gotten what he wanted.

"I commend you for thinking to get a weapon, but why a sword? Not exactly an easy weapon to use, do you have some experience?" Damien felt silly for asking, just from the little he saw when walking in, he could tell that Kaden knew a thing or two.

"Yeah, I've practiced."

And he had, a lot. By now he had spent countless hours in the dreamscape, learning from a true master every night.

"Where'd you learn?" Damien was very interested in knowing, after all there weren't too many sword masters in the modern age.

"Uhh." Kaden didn't know what excuse to give Damien.

He couldn't quite well just come out and tell people that he had vivid dreams of a demon slaughtering people, and that this demon's phantom came to him at night, abducting him to some sort of structured dream palace where it would teach him by example.

"The internet, I just watched videos," Kaden said, the best excuse that he could come up with.

Well it was partly true, watching the phantom demon was a bit like watching videos just in 3d.

"Riiight," Damien drew out the word, doubting him, "Well you're pretty good for someone who's just watched videos."

Damien didn't believe the kid for a second, but he couldn't call him out on it either. This was just another thing to add to his list of strange things regarding the kid.

"Thanks," Kaden didn't bother incriminating himself with any extra details.

The less he said, the less he would give away.

"Anyway, you should save a bit of energy for class. People should begin showing up any moment now."

And they did.

Little by little the rest of the class trickled in, taking their place around the room.

When everyone had arrived, Damien stood at the front, addressing the class.

"Tonight we will be aiding the soldiers in defending the city," Damien spoke gravely, knowing just what these words meant.

And everyone else knew the meaning too. It was like a bomb had been dropped out of nowhere, murmurs and aggravated discussions rippling through everyone present as the fear and panic began to set in.

Damien made them all quiet down before continuing, "I would've liked to give you more warning, more time to prepare, but the unfortunate truth is that neither I nor you have any choice in this matter.

"That's why we will be using the remaining time that we have, to prepare the best that we can. For this class, we will be practicing how to fight as a group. But before that, the City Administration has provided us with some weapons to use. You can all come up here and pick out one or two items."

Behind Damien was a rectangular box on wheels that he had rolled in. Now he pulled off the lid, revealing an assortment of items.

Curious to see what was offered, Kaden went up to get a better look.

As he saw the contents inside the box, he immediately cherished the fact that he had already gotten his hand on a sword.

Inside the box was a very shabby collection of weapons.

Old crummy bats, lots and lots of different knives, a single staff, some newly made wooden shields, and… Nunchucks for some reason. Hell there was even a pair of brass knuckles.

None of it was anything you wanted to use when fighting against vicious wolves. Some of the bats could do fine, but they were old and already on the verge of breaking. The staff might be fine too, but there was only a single one.

But nunchucks, knives, and brass knuckled, nobody wanted that.

There was a bit of disregard for others as the class became disorderly, each hurrying to try and get their hands on one of the decent items from the box.

The staff was snatched up immediately, and after that it was the shields. They were all new, and likely made for the ADF. Still, they weren't anything special, just three planks of wood stuck together by strips of wood that ran across.

Kaden considered going up and getting one, but while his sword could be used one-handed, he had no confidence in doing for an extended period. In that case a shield was no good, and even if he just kept it on his back to protect his behind, it would slow him down and make it harder to move around.

The contents of the box were soon stripped bare, and everyone had gone back to their spots, now outfitted with weapons. If you could call it that.

There was a mix of expressions on everyone's faces. A few were happy, some neutral, and then a lot of disgruntlement.

Some people were side eyeing the ones who had snatched what they wanted right before them.

This was a matter of life and death. This untrained group of people was rapidly being overtaken with jealousy and resentment.

The better the weapon you got to pick, the higher your chance of survival. In a situation like this, there was no time to be gracious towards others.

Everyone had started off friendly towards each other, but now that things were getting serious nobody wanted to be worse off than others.

From the sidelines where he had watched people clamor for weapons, Kaden could see this clear as day. There were even some people who were eying the weapon on his back, eager to take it for themselves.

Damien could see this resentment brooding within the members as well, and did his best to shoot it down before it could take hold.

"I see clearly that most of you are unsatisfied with what you got. I understand that it sucks to get the short end of the stick, but we can only make do with what we have. You're scared, and this has made some of you begun to think of yourselves as individuals, something that will only serve to make it harder for you to survive.

"We are not individuals, we are a group, a unit. The only way to survive is to depend on each other. As a group we are far stronger than we are alone. A group can make up for the individual member's shortcomings, and help each other when needed, fighting together."

"None of you here are strong enough to rely on yourself for survival. That's why I will be splitting you all into small four man squads that you will be moving together in tonight. After some practice and using the data I have, I will be able to ascertain each of your strengths and weaknesses to make the most well-rounded squads."

The members seemed to be considering his words, and some managed to clear the feeling of resentment from their minds. It helped knowing that they had to rely on their teammates and trust them.

So what if someone else had the better weapon? They were a team.

"We'll start by going over basic combat that can be applied to any sort of weapon, essentially how to fight and survive. After this I will be going over more specific tips for each of your weapons. We'll finish up by doing mock fights, both in groups and individually."

Kaden listened attentively as Damien began going over the basic knowledge of combat. Most of the stuff was simple and kind of obvious, but it was still good to hear it and Damien brought up a few points that he'd never thought of.

When Damien had told them and demonstrated everything he knew, he started taking people away to teach them in smaller groups, going over the finer points of each weapon.

During this time, Kaden continued practicing with his sword, trying to implement some of the new things he had learned.

Hours passed as they practiced, doing their best to prepare for what was coming.

After some time, Kaden also had his turn with Damien. It was a quick affair as Damien didn't know much about swords except for the basics, but this was valuable information to Kaden as that was exactly what he was missing.

When Damien had finished up with everyone, they started with the individual mock fights.

The 50 ADF members had split up into 25 groups, and were now practicing how to fight. They moved in half speed to avoid injuring each other, after all it wasn't about winning, but learning.

Damien would walk around, correcting everyone when they made themselves vulnerable by overextending, turning too much, or whatever else they did wrong.

And there was a lot that they did wrong.

It was an uphill battle to prepare them all for what they would be facing. Truth was that in a close range battle like they would be engaging in, they couldn't give their opponent even a single chance.

The wolves were quick and vicious, even showing an opening for a second was enough for them to severely injure you.

And once you were injured…

Damien shuddered from even considering it.