knighthood (1)
An alarm blared out the knight badge as I woke up groggily, not used to waking up so early. I struggled out of the comfy bed. put on my shoes and t-shirt. looking into the small provided mirror I tidied up my hair.
'I need more than one t-shirt, maybe I should go out and buys some. or study water magic.' thinking to myself was one way to get myself awake and moving. I made sure to be quiet as i moved throughout the halls of the inn and down the stairs. The main floor had maybe one or two workers tidying up the place before work, they looked at me and smiled.
"you're the kid who was accepted to be a knight right?" I nodded.
"best of luck too you, the only advice I've heard from working here is don't eat anything before hand. going hungry is better than throwing up in front of the sergeant." she said with a small wave.
I turned around, didn't have much time too eat much anyway. Opening the door i looked outside as a cool breeze hit me. it smelt like it had rained, the sky was still a hazed out midnight blue as the sun tried to break into view. Walking there didn't take long as I passed by the guild hall. The grand building once again came it too view as i turned. a lot of people were walking into the building, a couple standing outside and a small few eating breakfast on the fountain. going around the fountain and into the guild hall, where a number of people were in line in front of a large desk that was placed in the middle of the large room.
'why are they lined up like that.'
"hey" a meek voice appeared behind me. i turned and saw a short girl with black hair that stopped around her shoulders.
"Are you here for the knight meeting as well?" She asked.
"Yes I am, do we line up over there?" I pointed towards the large line that starated to shrink down a little bit.
"I believe so." She said as she started walking over towards the line.
'Odd' following suit behind her I waited in line. Getting to the front of the line I just exchanged my name and other basic information and was given a suit of basic armor. He pointed to a door located to the left of the table which I then entered.
Opening the door I saw a large courtyard with a large amount of patios, in the middle lie a patio that was engraved in the ground. like a miniature stadium. People seemed to be waiting around the middle patio, I walked towards them and stood in the far back. Unable to really catch on what was happening. A large man walked out the door I came from and walked towards us with a large checklist of names.
"Alright listen up, we are going to have multiple experienced knights have a mock battle with you so we can decide where we place you. The mages,backline,frontline,disciplinary or the boring secretary job. Everyone pick up a long sword and a dagger, magic will not be used for this first battle. Pick an arena and stay there."
'Well, this is dumb. Can't we do something else?' Picking up the required weapons i head to a small patio on the outside. The small patios seemed to be around a 15 foot square in size.
"Good too see you again." The girl before walked up too me without much expression.
"Be weird if we didn't, this feels more like a childrens tourney than an exam." I snarked back, seems like the lack of sleep hasn't done much good for me.
The young girl snorted a little as she scrunched her nose
"No kidding. It's like they expect us to be bad at combat, well to be fair. Half of these guys are just pretty boys after the general of the back lines. Another quarter is here for the gold with no prior training, including monster fighting. The other which I have no idea, don't care much either." She shrugged. Her green eyes narrowed as her nose scrunched again. Freckles dotted around her nose.
"Hate the flowers here, can't we get this started."
I nodded in response to that. Noticing a man walk over to us and onto the arena
"Hello! I'm your instructor today! Please treat me well! May I have Eric step up please." He looked toward our group.
Low and behold. Hu was my instructor.
A young man with light blue hair and small horns on the back of his head walked up to the arena.
'This girl is correct, this kid has never picked up a weapon. I haven't much either, but I could beat this kids ass.' I noted at the way he held his sword dominant hand near the hilt, preventing movement of the sword when needed.
Hu took out his swords and didn't a couple of twirls and pointed it straight down at his side as he stood still.
"Attack at any point." He said calmly.
'That's not a sword, that's a rapier.' I've read about them in some of the books I had back at my old town. If he's even remotely good at the rapier this kids as good as minced meat.
I heard a small snort from the girl next too me, she seemed to notice as well.
Eric pointed his sword forward at ran. Literally the worst possible thing you could do. Hu saw this and I saw the light in his eyes dissolve, he looked extremely disappointed. He took on step to the side and thrusted the rapier sideways into Eric's hip. Eric crumpled at the pain of a small hip stab.
"Do not worry, a medic is waiting for you back in the hall." Withdrawing his rapier and turned back towards us.
"Next, Blake" he seemed to return back to his encouraged demeanor as he back up into the same stance. Eric was clutching his hip as he stared at Hu with ferocious anger. But not much he could do as he limped back through the door.
Sadly Blake didn't do much better, he knew how to hold a sword and not to charge forward recklessly. But he had no experience in real battle, he was probably fought by his uncle for fun. Hu was much more pleased however.
"Not bad, a healer will be waiting for you in the hall. Afterwards please come back out and have a seat on one of the spectating benches." He said as he helped him up.
"Next Akio" he seemed to recognize the name as I walked up rather calmly, both opponents before me used the long sword and left their dagger on their bench spot. I decided to take both, I heard a interested squeak from the girl behind me.
"Please take care of me" I vowed to him as I took out my long sword, but I held it at my side. like a rapier but more smoothly and loose. I've got a small idea on how rapiers work after watching him fight a couple of times.
He narrowed his eyes at my form, clear disappointment shown. Seeing this I smirked, taking out the small half foot full dagger I got in my left hand. This made him very extremely dissatisfied, taking it as a *I have no idea what I'm doing*. Of course I don't, but I'm confident in what I can't do.
"Really?" He tilted his head at what I did in front of him.
I didn't respond but started to walk towards him slowly. Hu got a little annoyed at this.
"You could've done way better" he said standing still. He lounged forward at an astonishing speed, I could still see him though. Using my small dagger I deflected the dagger left as I twisted my torso and swung the long sword down at his legs.
"Gh" I heard a grunt as he jumped back before I could even do anything. I looked down at the longsword and threw it out of the arena.
"Too heavy" I said to him with a small shrug.
I heard a Hu laugh at this as he charged forward once again. This time I decided to duck under it and aim for his undefended hand. To which He veered to the side of the strike and struck again. I couldn't avoid this one strike of his as it came forward like a bullet. Moving the handle downwards I grabbed the blade of my dagger and shoved the handle to block the attack. With a loud think it connected.
His eyes widened at the sight of my action and pulled his sword back to yet throw it again. I grabbed the handle again and chopped the rapier upwards knocking it sideways and charged his rapier hand. I swung the knife down on his shoulder, but right I was going to hit him I felt a huge lodge hit me in the stomach.
I rolled over as he launched another strike on my leg, I rolled forward under the strike and punched him in the stomach. Hearing the air blow out of him I smirked , but I felt a large needle like pain in my hip.
"Tch" I kicked his arm up forcing the rapier out as I jumped up, using my dagger to try and strike his rapier in his ready stance. He moved it out of the way and held it like a kitchen knife with the point leering straight towards my eye. I ducked and tried to sweep my legs under him. But he jumped out of the way and lodged a punch to the side of my head.
The loud clank of my helmet rang through my head as I rolled backwards.
"Well done! I'm very impressed at youre… technique? I honestly didn't know what that was" i heard him say to me as i stood up. With him scratching the side of his chin.
I heard another squeaky laugh followed by a couple of snorts from the crowd.
"Oh hush, you know I would've got you if it wasn't my first time fighting a person with a rapier." I grinned and slapped him on the back on my way to the medic. Blood pooled out my hip, seemed like this one was a little too deep as I winced.
"Come back out to the spectator benches once your finished with the medic" he called over to me as i opened up the door.
'Ah, what a pain' I smiled as I sat down In front of a man holding a staff.
'I'll make sure to throw it back at him later on.'