Chapter 10 - The Hunt Begins

At first light, the students had gathered with Teacher Xie and two of the Jun clan's soldiers, Jun San and Jun Er. The hunting party quickly distributed supplies including their new partners - eight newly forged black bladed long sabers.

"Take a moment to familiarize yourselves with your new partners," Teacher Xie instructed. "Even before the hunt begins, we may find ourselves needing to fight. You don't want the first time you draw your blade to be against a real enemy." Gesturing at the area where their stone pillars still stood he watched as each of them became acquainted with their blades.

Jun Ben rushed directly to his stone pillar, dropping the saber's sheath to the ground as he unleashed his best Rending Pincer. In that moment, none of the students expected they Jun Ben, the least disciplined of them all, would be the first to shatter his pillar with an explosive sound of breaking stone. "No way," he said, jaw hanging in disbelief. "My saber is that powerful?"

"Jun Yang," Teacher Xie said gently. "Why don't you try?"

Given his teacher's prompting, Jun Yang approached his pillar and struck out with a mighty roar! Just like Jun Ben, his pillar exploded in a shower of rock fragments, leaving even less of his pillar intact than Jun Ben had. Seeing his success, everyone moved to their own pillars, each one successfully rending them in two.

"Our sabers are amazing! No wonder Teacher Xie had such an easy time rending earth with his," Jun Ben exclaimed. "If I'd had this on the first day, I would never have had such a hard time mastering Rending Pincer! I'd already know two, no, three named techniques by now! These swords are amazing!"

"No, that's not it," Jun Xiang said after watching everyone succeed. "Our technique is still different. Teacher Xie," she asked, turning to the leather faced warrior. "You could do this with a wooden saber couldn't you? But we can't."

"Good that you know," Teacher Xie said, a rare approving gleam in his eyes. "Do you know why?" Teacher Xie asked, looking at his group of students to see if anyone had caught on to what had actually changed with the new sabers.

"Rebound," Jun Yang said as he examined the lingering sensation of his strikes on his meaty palms. "When we used wooden sabers, some of our martial energy bounced back to the wooden blade, eventually destroying it. With Heartless, the energy didn't rebound the same way. It cleaved into the stone and wasn't wasted."

"Exactly," Teacher Xie confirmed. "The black bladed saber isn't all that special. It's quenched in giant scorpion blood, giving it the black color and some affinity with our saber style that you'll discover in time. Otherwise, it's as ordinary as ordinary gets. What it has is a sharp edge and a strong spine. Wooden practice weapons lack both of these, wasting energy and blunting your strikes."

Ao Wen gazed at the black blade in her hand. It felt strangely comfortable, like it belonged in her hands. The past month, most of her waking hours had been spent with a practice saber in hand. When she slept, the saber rested at her bedside, ready to be taken up in an instant if Teacher Xie called for a surprise night lesson. It had become something that it felt odd to be without. Now that she had replaced the wooden saber with a real one, she felt… complete in a way she couldn't quite describe. "Maybe this is what it means for one of my words to be Saber," she thought. "Will it be like this with other things too? Will it feel this natural?"

"Alright everyone," Teacher Xie said, calling her attention back to the moment. "You have the time it takes to brew a cup of tea to have your horses saddled and to be ready to ride. Our goal is to reach Serpent's Creek before the day becomes too hot for the horses. This time of year, the creek barely exists, but it's enough to water the horses and for trees to provide a bit of shade. We aren't the only ones who may seek water and shade during the heat, be ready for enemies when we arrive, be they people or beasts."

With that, the youths quickly saddled their horses and fell in line, riding behind Jun San and Jun Er while Teacher Xie brought up the rear of their group. Despite having little practice riding this past month, Ao Wen sat comfortably in the saddle. The horses were well trained and the pace was easy to manage. The slight heel on her soft leather boots made sitting in the stirrups easy and Teacher Xie's constant drilling of footwork and stances made it easy for her to adjust her posture with the gait of her mount. This too, she supposed, was a kind of training.

An hour before the sun reached its zenith, the hunting party arrived at the top of a small hill overlooking a winding creek bed and several stunted trees. In late spring and early summer, when snow melt from the distant mountains brought water to this arid region, the creek would run swift and cold attracting wildlife from all over the area. Now, barely a trickle of water moved along the center of the creek bed and the only wildlife aside from a few small birds in the trees and insects was a handful of coyotes.

"Stop," Teacher Xie said. "Wind Howl Coyotes. They aren't particularly smart but their howl can summon dust devils and they move faster than most coyotes. Beware of them hiding in the dust storm they raise, they may pounce from unexpected directions. Jun Xiang, Jun Ben, Jun Biyu," he said, pointing out the three students. "Three of you should be enough for six of them. Jun Er will be close enough to help if things turn dire but this is your first hunt. If you risk little, you learn little. Do you understand?"

"I understand," they said in unison, sliding off their horses and drawing their black bladed sabers.

"Jun Ben," Ao Wen said to the eager young man, wanting to get a plan in place before he came up with nonsense that only got them in even more trouble. "You and I will rush the coyotes while Jun Xiang hangs back for the coyotes to make their move. We need to take out two of them almost immediately or things will be very difficult," she said, fixing his eyes in her gaze to make sure he understood exactly what she was requiring of him.

"What, why have Xiang hang back?" Jun Ben asked. It wasn't that he minded having a greater share of the glory to himself but he didn't like feeling like he was missing part of the plan. Though he would never say it aloud, if it weren't for the fact that Ao Wen was rushing along with him, he'd think he was being used as bait!

"Because she's the most observant of any of us," Ao Wen explained. "Remember what Teacher said about making the enemy believe things that aren't true? When six of them see two of us, they won't treat us as a great threat. They probably won't howl. But when two of them fall quickly, they'll panic a bit, and then they'll whip up a dust storm."

"You want me to wait until they call up the wind and then catch them from behind," Jun Xiang said, nodding in agreement before she grinned. "A pincer attack. But can we do it with just three of us?" Jun Xiang could agree with the logic of the plan in general but she had reservations about whether the three of them could pull it off against the greater number of coyotes.

"I can go in alone if you want," Jun Ben bragged confidently. "I'll kill two before they know what hit them and then you ladies can both come in from behind. They won't last thirty breaths!"

"Idiot," Jun Xiang said with a frown. "Don't you get it? Taking the lead, you and Jun Biyu will be surrounded. Alone, you'd quickly be attacked from behind. Together, you can fight back to back. 'If you do not have favorable terrain to close off a line of attack, use allies to close off a line of attack'," she quoted.

"But doesn't that quote end with 'if you do not have allies to close off a line of attack, use enemies to close off a line of attack'," Jun Ben replied, still believing that he could lead the assault alone.

"That invites a running battle," Ao Wen said, looking to Teacher Xie to receive a nod before continuing. "We do it my way. I have your back, you have mine, Jun Xiang protects us both from behind. Understood?" Unconsciously, Ao Wen found herself emulating Teacher Xie's commanding tone when she spoke. It seemed to have the desired effect.

"Okay," Jun Ben finally agreed. "We do it your way."