63th of Fall 511AV
Morning broke and as was habit Serrif’s steps were taking him to the Suvai pavilion. He would be working with Ildin again. She seemed extremely persistent about his archery lessons now that she knew he was leaving. He had no idea why but he did have theories. Maybe she wanted to prove that she could train an archer just as good as any Akalak instructor. That she could churn out hardened well balanced archers just as well as any dark skinned instructor. Or maybe she was worried about him, he knew she would never admit that, and wanted to make sure that she wasn’t sending him ill prepared out into the world. Both were possible reasons and both were good reasons as well. But for some reason he felt like there was still something more to it. Something deeper that he just couldn’t grab hold of right now. And he knew Ildin wouldn’t betray her feelings or emotions to him easily…or at all. So he would be kept in the dark like always.
As always he wore his white bodysuit as well as a lightweight white cloak. There was no need for any other layers these kept out the cold enough for him right now. His climbers quiver was hugging his right thigh and his longbow was in his left hand. This allowed him to pull arrows quickly without having to reset his bow or reach around his body to get the arrows. Every step on the balk sent miniature waves out across the silver lake. Part of him wondered what the lake looked like under the surface…but he knew that would be a bad thing. He didn’t want more exposure to the lake than he needed. He heard the waters caused visions and insanity in large doses. Darkness already plagued his mind enough without the visions and insanity the water could cause.
He could hear the world around him, it was different than before in his life as well. He actually listened to what was happening around him. Everything was quiet almost as if the world was holding its breath. He smiled as he closed his eyes and focused on centering himself. Everything was pushed away gently into oblivion. He focused on not focusing…there was irony in this. There was nothing but him and the fixtures of the world around him. The silver lake, the trees and the building around him. He stretched his mind away from this and felt at peace…a voice interrupted him coming through the mix gently.
“Come Serrif there is much still to learn.” But even before she spoke he knew someone was here, and he knew it was Ildin. It was an odd feeling but he had a very good idea what was going to happen. None else would approach him here. None except Ildin.
“Yes mistress.” He responded as he picked up his bow and headed off with her to wherever she was going to be taking him.
His mind began to run through all the possibilities of the day. He had no idea what she could have in store for him, but again there were almost limitless possibilities. She always planned something interesting and as of late…the exercises were getting even more real to life as if she was preparing him for exactly what he would be facing. There was a sincerity and urgency in what she taught him. Like everything up until now was just preparation for these lessons. She wanted to know that he was responsible, that he would use these skills for what was good and right instead of straight revenge. No, she wanted him to be a straight and exact tool of precise action. Cutting through the muck and grime that was the world all the while keeping a level head about him. She needed him to be able to live with the decisions he made. To be able to face his inner self with peace every night when he went to sleep. She knew he would be conflicted but hopefully his morality would keep his head on straight.
They walked to a clearing again, and Serrif was able to identify the targets off in the woods. They were at varying distances again, but the closest one seemed to be at the furthest distance that he shot in his previous encounter with the potato sac dummies. So he would be going for distance today then. But the dummies also wore armor, and some had shields. This was interesting indeed…He looked to Ildin who have him exact advice as she ran him through the motions.
“Before you are eight dummies, the closest at fifty feet and the furthest at a hundred and ten feet. Now, each is armored as you see but each is a little different. Go ahead I will give you time to look each dummy over carefully before you take shots at them with the arrows I will provide.” She motioned and Serrif walked toward the furthest target first to get a better idea for what he was up against.
Target Layout :
This target was lightly armored, he felt the leather armor and noted that it was of about standard thickness. There were no metal studs in it at all and the target held a wooden shield in it’s left hand covering about a good 2/3 of it’s chest. The wooden shield wasn’t that sturdy either, it felt flimsy to tell the truth. There was no real metal on the shield except for a metal rung around the outside of the shield holding the planks together. This shield could likely be broken with a few well-placed arrows, or Serrif could fire for the chest area…or maybe the legs since they were easily visible, the chest was the only part that was protected from both the shield and leather. He knew that an armor piercing arrow or maybe even a standard arrow could pierce deep enough to cause heavy deadly trauma. He wouldn’t be easily able to hit the chest because of how the shield was placed, but he could do damage to the legs and this would slow and maybe even kill the target.
The next was armored in chainmail and standard clothing. He felt the chainmail and he knew that it was going to e difficult to pierce even with the armor piercing arrows. This target however didn’t have a shield and instead carried a two hand axe and was holding it across his chest. This reduced slightly the available area he could hit of the chest. But it would be difficult he figured to even hit past the armor itself. Chainmail felt like it would reflect broadheads and likely protect well against the standard field arrows as well. The only real chance he had was the armor piercing with this target. But he had no idea what Ildin would be handing him to use on these targets, but he knew there had to be a few armor piercing arrows. The next item was this targets distance, how would that effect the arrows piercing ability? This was a good distance away from where he would be firing from and he wasn’t sure the arrow could carry its piercing ability this far. To ‘kill’ this target he would have to make a very precise hit to the head or several hits to critical areas in the chest.
Each target had a fair amount of space between them but he figured he would likely be standing right next to Ildin so he would have an interesting angle on some of the targets as opposed to others. It would be interesting to see how this affected his shots. The next in line was wearing fur armor; it was a little thicker feeling than the leather but would be nowhere near as hard to pierce as the chainmail. But as he felt around he would notice that there was something harder underneath it…it felt like a breastplate. Had he not been so thorough in investigating these targets he would’ve missed it. He tapped the breastplate and it clanged, indicating that it was indeed there and not just a figment of his imagination. He felt around and the breastplate was only protecting the chest. There was nothing below the belt and nothing on the legs or the arms. The side of the dummy was also a little unarmored and didn’t have any real hard armor on it. It seemed the breastplate was fixed with leather straps and didn’t have hard sides…which were a weakness. That would likely be where he would aim for if he could hit it.
He walked to the next target and started to assess it carefully as well. This dummy was clad in studded leather armor. He felt carefully making sure that there weren’t any hidden armors beneath it, and there weren’t. The studs were scattered throughout the armor and had a decent amount of spacing between them. It wouldn’t be difficult to place an arrow between them, but it would be mostly chance especially at this distance, but there was a good chance he would place an arrow in a soft spot. Now if he used a normal arrow he assumed it would likely pierce deep enough if it hit correctly, however an armor piercing arrow had a narrower tip and would more easily pierce between the studs.
There didn’t seem to be any real pattern to how and where the targets were armored. But she was likely giving him a good overall feeling of how armor reacted to arrows at different ranges. He would need to use this information in the future and Ildin knew this as well. The next one was shiny and clad in what appeared to be full platemail. The arms, legs, chest and even head were completely covered in the steel armor. He walked up to it and felt the mail. It was fixed on with leather straps and belts tight to the dummy. Below the plate was what appeared to be a padded armor so that the plate could be tightened down onto it a good amount. That was a second layer of defense. He knew he would have to use armor piercing arrows on this target. But where was the weak spot. He felt around and noted that the joints seemed to be weak. But the helmet also looked to be a weak spot, and compared to the joints it would be an easier spot to hit. Other than that the only weakness he could see was that the leg plating seemed to be a little thin. That made sense though who expected to be hit in the legs? With that idea he moved on down the line.
Scale mail. Interlocked little scales that formed a reptilian like armor when done correctly; however this set seemed a little flimsy. The scales seemed to be a little loose. This might work to his advantage, although this armor seemed to have the best of two worlds working for it. It had the flexibility of chainmail, with some of the added protection of the platemail. This would likely take a good shot to penetrate. The scales were fine and the only thing he could do to figure out a weakness would be to go against the grain of the scales and maybe wedge an arrow under the scales. But that would likely be impossible to do at the range he was shooting from. So he would likely aim for the relatively unprotected head, being that it only had a skullcap on. That protected the top of the head but didn’t do much for the face area or the neck. Those were the weak spots that he would have to aim for…that and maybe the legs…a pattern was starting to form here.
It seemed most armor was weak in the neck, joints and legs. So if all else failed those would always be good hit areas even at a distance. A few arrows in the legs would slow a target down maybe even make them bleed out, while a hit in the neck or head would definitely kill without much more needed. The targets after this one seemed to be a little more difficult but not because they were more heavily armored but because of how they were armored. The next target wore chainmail under a leather armor and then burdened a large wooden and steel tower shield. The tower shield covered all of the chest as well as most of the head and down to the knees. This was going to be a difficult target to mark. He knew this would either be a head or a leg shot. If he could get the tower shield away from the body he could make some center mass shots. But the dummy was really fixed on the shield. But since he couldn’t he would have to come up with alternative areas to mark. And this tower shield was going to make this extremely difficult for him.
The closest target was armored in two layers, the very same layers he wore. The topmost was a breastplate and below that was a scale mail jacket. There was little protection on the legs and the dummy didn’t have a shield. But he was here to see armor penetration so he would try and see if he could pierce through the chest area through both sets of armor. But even if he couldn’t he could put a broadheead into the legs or the arms and do good damage there. In his experience so far it only took one good broadhead to really make someone bleed out. Those arrows did an insane amount of damage even at reasonable distances, but he still hadn’t tested them at this far, but from what he had seen they would still be effective.
He had scoped out all eight targets, and now it was time to start placing arrows on them. Now what would he be using to mark them. Ildin nodded as Serrif approached.
“You done?”
“Yes mistress.” He said with a nod as she then handed him a rather large quiver that was full of all kinds of arrows. There didn’t seem to be any method to how or how many of each type of arrow were in the quiver. “This is what you get to take out all the targets.”
He thumbed through all the arrows picking them up and organizing them in the quiver as such. All of the armor piercing arrows were arranged on the leftmost side of the quiver he counted that he had around twelve of them. Then next to them he put the regular arrows and he only had around ten of those. Then on the far right hand side he put all the broadhead arrows, he noted that he had about eight of them. So in all he had thirty arrows to put downrange. He figured this would be more of an experiment than anything. But there was a bit of pressure here as well, he was supposed to kill all these targets with the limited amount of arrows he had.
So he began to ration the arrows out on the targets. He knew for sure that the full plate target sitting at about seventy five or so feet would soak up the greatest amount of arrows. Mostly because he knew that it would take a good amount of tries to hit a joint…but maybe he could just aim for the legs and get lucky. He did remember that the armor there felt rather thin. He figured he could commit a regular arrow to the task of finding out just how thick the armor was. So without any real further thought on the subject he drew out a normal arrow and knocked it in the bowstring. This would be his test shot.
Wind was minimal right now, all he had to worry about was drop over distance. This was relatively easy to account for. So he pulled the string back slowly applying even pressure and pull on both sides of the arrow as he readied himself to mark the target. With a slow exhale he then made final last minute corrections to his trajectory and let the arrow fly. With a single smooth release the arrow was sent forward to meet destiny…and platemail. With a single loud impact the arrow seemed to almost glance off the rounded plate leg. Not a good first trial. But this was about learning. So it became obvious that he would need to use the needle tipped armor piercing arrows. So he nocked one and pulled the string back. He would aim for around the waist area, If he got a good hit he would try and see if his bow could pierce the chest area at this distance. He released the single armor piercing arrow and it impacted around the waist area and seemed to bite through the armor. Again, a single arrow wouldn’t bring the target down so he took up another needle tipped armor piercing arrow and let it fly, this time aimed at either the neck or head.
That arrow got lucky and struck the lower neck right above the collar area of the plate top. The tip bit through the sac cloth dummies throat and pinned to the pole it was fixed to. That was the kill shot he was looking for. Ildin didn’t speak. She was more interested in observing her pupil’s thought process. He had gone for the heavily armored target first. Getting the difficult task out of the way incase it proved to be more difficult than he first thought. She nodded and continued to watch. Where would he move from here?
He surveyed the targets and remembered what he had felt while he was there. He had several hardened targets that he still needed to hit. The next most challenging target would be the farther away target about a hundred feet out with the fur over the breastplate. The only real reason this was a challenge was because of the distance and the fact that he was unsure arrows could pierce the breastplate at this distance. So he would start with his normal arrows and see if he could hit and pierce the legs of the target. Feeling around he pulled and knocked a normal arrow and took rough aim. Then once he had settled himself he pulled back on the bowstring and made final fine adjustments. With a slow exhale he released the bowstring and watched as the arrow stretched out to touch the target.
The arrow bit into the targets left leg and buried itself there. He knew by the force and observational depth that it buried that the hit was a good one. So he made a good hit in the leg that would stagger the opponent, time to end this and see what an armor piercing arrow could do. So he knocked one and decided that he would be best aiming near the belt area. Even if it didn’t hit the armor he could still hit the intestine areas and kill the target. Yes it would be a horribly painful death, but it was death. Fine adjustments made and the arrow was sent. From his distance it looked like the arrow hit just below the armor and bit through the fur bottom and destroyed the intestines. A good kill shot. Two targets down now.
It was time to pick a soft target now. The target with the scale mail and skullcap would be an easy enough target. He figured he could manage to hit it in the head or neck area with a broadhead. That would be sure to kill the inanimate target. So he stretched a little and then took general aim while knocking an arrow. He was going for a real kill here. He did some final adjustments and then figured he would see what he was capable of. He watched the arrow fly and he noticed it looked like it was going to glance the dummies neck. Maybe it would hit but it would be close. The arrow twisted and the sharpened edge of the broadhead did what it was meant to do. It glanced the neck of the dummy and cut it as it passed by. At first the damage wouldn’t be easily visible, but after a few seconds he would see the slice…Serrif could assume that was a good kill. He didn’t think that anyone would recover from a neck being sliced open like that from an arrow…but he knew better than to assume he could ever duplicate that in the real world. Out there he knew that hit would be one in a million.
So next target. What would he go for now? There was an obvious target…the closest one. This would be an interesting trial of his own gear as well. Because this target was wearing the same gear he had. He figured he would test an armor piercing arrow on it. He knocked one and pulled back ready to unleash it on the close 50 foot target. He breathed out and then slowly let the string pull off his fingertips. Like the arrows before it the arrow sailed and met the target head on with a good amount of force. The point buried itself through the body but he wasn’t sure if it made any headway in the underarmor. So to be sure he would need to place another arrow somewhere less protected. So if he was going to hit flesh he would use a broadhead for it. So he figured an arm or leg would be a good target, and at this distance he could hit either rather easily. So he nocked a broadhead and figured the arm would be a good target. He aimed for the targets left arm and loosed. The arrow buried itself deep through the sac cloth arm. That would be good enough for his sake. If he had arrows left over at the end he could plink some more into targets he thought that he had left alive.
The tower shield, that would be interesting to try and maneuver around. So he figured he would try and see just how durable this shield was. It wasn’t all steel, it seemed to only have a steel outer rim and the inside was wood of some kind with a fur stretched over it, there may be a layer of leather between the wood and fur. But he wasn’t sure how much punishment the shield would take. But all he would likely hit would be the dummies arm. And that was a maybe at best; what he was really aiming for was mostly hidden by the massive shield. He would plink a few arrows into it for practice then see if he could strike the dummy down. Selecting a normal arrow he knocked and then ran over the plan one last time in his head before leveling the bow and slowly pulling the string back. He stretched some and cleanly pulled back to his mark. He then released and watched the arrow knock into the tower shield. The shield rocked some but seemed to absorb the arrow pretty well. That meant he would obviously have to shoot around it if he wanted to strike the dummy down. But there were really only two points he could hope to mark, the top of the head and the legs. At this distance it wouldn’t be too difficult but the head looked to be armored with a skullcap or something of the likes. So his arrows would likely only glance off instead of biting into the head. So he needed to be smarter about this. The legs were the only other real target here. They looked a little unprotected as well. But he would have to put a good amount of arrows into them to kill or disable this target.
Broadheads would do just fine here, they would provide the adequate amount of damage dealing power that he required. He pulled one from the quiver and knocked it into the bowstring. Looking downrange he noted any wind…there was none present. He pulled the bow up and slowly pulled back on the string. He made some fine adjustments to hopefully hit the target in the leg, maybe the unprotected shin area just below the target. He made the adjustments and then released the string from his fingers cleanly and watched. The broadhead was a little slower than other arrows but when it hit it wrecked the victim. The arrow seemed to pass just under the shield and mark the dummies left leg. That would be a tragic hit and likely slow his target down a good amount. But he wanted to lay it out on the ground, he needed to hit the other leg as well. Knocking another broadhead he made mental notes of his last arrows flight path so he could make more exact adjustments. He pulled back and then let the arrow fly. It struck the dummies other leg down near the ankle. That was sure to slow down or floor his target.
He surveyed the rest of the targets and came to the conclusion that they should be easy to take down comparatively. There were only 3 more targets left and he had plenty of arrows to mark them with. They weren’t even the most heavily armored targets in comparison. That meant he could to back and place more arrows on his former targets if he felt the need to after he was done marking these. That was likely what he would do, some of the targets seemed to have survived the barrage better than others. He would need to rectify this before claiming that he was done.
Next target his mind whispered to him as he scanned over what was left in the field. Two targets wearing leather and one wearing chainmail. The chainmail would prove to be harder than the other two. So he would pull a needle tip arrow into it and see what he got back. One of the eight left armor piercing arrows found itself skillfully knocked in the bow and ready to be sent downrange. Serrif judged distance; it was over a hundred feet, but not over by much. He could score a chest hit pretty easily, and that would be enough as long as the armor didn’t shrug off the damage. But he was betting that he could get a good hit on it. Adjusting for distance he pulled back and held for a few seconds. He could feel the string fight his arm as he took careful aim to meet the dummy in the chest. He released and the armor piercing arrow impacted. He had done well. But he still needed to be sure, so he knocked a normal arrow and was going to see if he could put it through the chest armor. It was likely not going to pierce very deep. But in conjunction with the armor piercing arrow he believed it would be enough.
He knocked a normal arrow and took aim. He was going to try and place it not too far from the first hit. He took aim and released. The arrow moved rather quickly meeting the chest at an almost alarming speed. But at this distance he didn’t know if the arrow had bit very deep. So he would place another on it as well…just for good measure. This was the heaviest armed target above 100 feet and he wanted to make sure he got enough pierce depth on it to kill. Another normal arrow was knocked and readied in the bow. With a slow and even pull of the bowstring the arrow was ready…then the release. The arrow took flight and bit again into the chest. Serrif figured at that point that three arrows on target would dissuade the target from getting any closer to him. That would have to do for now. He had two more targets to dispatch.
There were only two targets left. Both wearing leather and both of them at considerable distances from where he was standing now. However, the further target was wielding a shield and the closer had studs in the armor. Both would prove to be interesting targets however the target with the shield would be the farthest target he ever tried to mark yet. So he would stretch for it just incase this turned out to be far more challenging than he first anticipated. But he doubted that would be the case, although you never really knew how difficult something really was until you stepped up to the plate and took a good chance at it. This was definitely going to be one of those times. He would have to use everything he learned up until now in order to place a decent mark on this target. So his mind went to work and he quickly began assessing what he knew. The shield was wooden, it wasn’t too thick but the wood would absorb arrows especially at this great a distance. So, his only option was to shoot around the shield just like he had for the tower shield. But he had one major advantage here, unlike the tower shield this one was round and didn’t cover nearly as much area as the tower shield did. But he was also at a disadvantage; this target was at a far greater distance, twice the distance if he had to place a good guess on how far.
So the shield covered part of the targets chest. But he would still be able to mark the center mass if he made careful and exact calculations on where he needed to aim. He knew he would have to hit past the shield and in the chest, but at this distance he wasn’t sure how to aim. So he would need to make a test shot or two. Nothing huge just a few spot shots so he knew what to expect from an armor piercing arrow. His hands found the butt of a regular arrow and he slowly nocked it and looked downrange at his target. With a calming breath he drew up his bow and then drew back nice and even with the bowstring. He held for a few moments and made last minute adjustments then released. The arrow streaked and met the target. However he was off some and the arrow hit the wooden shield just at the edge. So this told him he only needed a small amount of adjusting if he was going to hit the chest instead of the shield. But only small adjustments, anything more and at this distance he would miss the target completely.
An armor piercing arrow was gently gripped in his fingers. He didn’t have many arrows left, but then again he didn’t have many targets either. He stretched his shoulders some and then leveled his bow up to his starting position. With a clean draw he began to run through everything in his mind. He knew where he had released for the last arrow, all he needed to do was adjust slightly. Ever so slightly to bring the arrow to the chest; killing or mortally wounding this potato sac dummy. With the slight adjustment he exhaled and then released. It almost took forever for the arrow to sail across the sea of air between him and the target. It met and buried itself through the leather armor just right of the dummies heart. That would be a close arrow but not good enough for him. He would put another on target just to make sure. Again he pulled up and knocked another arrow to inflict damage on the target. He made a hairs edge adjustment and then pulled back again. With an exhale he released and the arrow jolted to the target hitting almost dead center of the heart. That was a kill shot.
There was now only one last target. Wearing studded leather and only about ninety feet away. That was an acceptable distance for a normal arrow to penetrate. He would use it like a feeler before releasing an armor piercing arrow on target. He stretched a little and felt for one of his last few normal type arrows. He felt one and knocked it, checking that it was indeed a standard tip. Once he confirmed that he looked out to the poor brown potato sac dummy. He would aim for center mass again, and hopefully the arrow would have enough power to pierce between the studs. If not he would have to switch tactics and see about an armor piercing arrow. The bow was brought up and the string pulled slowly back to arm the arrow. He was fully drawn and he then made last minute final adjustments. He was going for center mass; the release…The dummy shook some as the arrow seemed to bite somewhat into the leather, but it seemed the studs had done the job intended as the arrow didn’t seem to get very far. But if it had a good piercing depth the arrow would likely do some damage to the lungs. But that was an if he wasn’t willing to chance.
His fingers found an armor piercing arrow and brought it to the bowstring. This should breakthrough the leather and bury itself into the flesh. He pulled back to his full draw and made only a few adjustments before loosing the arrow to meet the dummy. It soared the path Serrif had predicted and buried itself into the upper left chest, likely and almost definitely piercing the lungs. In conjunction with his previous arrow he was sure that the target had been eliminated effectively. But now he still had arrows left over, now the question was did he use them on the remaining targets or keep them? Ildin had not instructed him that he had to use all of the arrows, she seemed to suggest he needed to use only what he had to. So he had marked all the targets effectively so he believed he was done. So he looked over the targets one last time.
It seemed to him that each target was marked effectively. Each would die eventually and that was the object of this exercise. He lowered his bow and gave Ildin a nod. “I believe I am done Mistress.”
“do you believe you are done or are you done Serrif, there is a difference.” She said as she gave him a stern look.
“I am done Mistress.”
“Very well then, go do a damage assessment and tell me what you believe the status of each target is.” She motioned for him to go out into the field and observe his targets.
He would start with the furthest target and work his way forward, the same way he had first observed the targets when he got to form his observations of them. The farthest target appeared to be dead but he really wouldn’t know for sure until he really got to peel apart the armor and observe the puncture depth of the arrows that did hit. There were so many factors that one had to take into account when trying to pierce armor at these distances. And the culmination of all this was now sitting in front of him in these dummies. He would have to observe them closely and make fair observations of the wounds. This information would be invaluable to him if he ever had to use it. Because knowing when to fire to kill was just as useful as any of the other skills he had learned so far.
As he approached the leather target with the wooden shield he noticed that it did indeed look dead to him. He put his hand around the arrows shaft as close as he could get to the dummy and then pulled out with even strength so that the arrow would not snap. He noted that both arrows had gotten a good amount of piercing depth, however the armor piercing arrow did get a good amount of piercing depth at this distance, although the normal arrow seemed to cause a good bit more of a wound. But the target would indeed be dead even at this range; this really spoke for the lethality of his bow.
With all the other targets he experienced the same results. The broadhead couldn’t pierce armor very well, but with relatively unprotected targets or thin hide like armor it would bite through and cause massive wounds. Normal arrows were good, but limited to medium to light armored targets. And when used against heavily armored targets they were only really effective if the target was close. However armor piercing arrows seemed to be decent at any distance especially against armored targets. They would bite through the armor and bury themselves in the flesh; but they left a much smaller wound area meaning to take down a large armored target you would need to hit the target more than once…if you weren’t using poison or another element.
“Have you looked them all over?” Serrif nodded in response. “And?” She questioned, querying him to share whatever he had learned.
“Different armored targets need different arrows. If there is no armor use a broadhead or a standard arrow, if lightly armored use normal arrows. The more armored the target becomes the more you will need needle tip arrows.” He stated bluntly as Ildin then nodded.
“You see, one day you may have to use this knowledge. You may have to make snap judgments and you may even be forced to take a life. However; for now I am glad to see that you learned something.”
Requests :
