Solo [Training Grounds] Grinding The Axe

[Garland]

Winter 60

Garland swung his axe at Catherine, a fierce swing, strong and fast, one that would take an unaware opponent's head clean off. Catherine was not unaware. She easily sidestepped Garland and attacked with her shield, knocking him to the ground.

"Come on, where's that skill I saw you with your sword. The first day I've met you you were better with your blade than this."

"To be fair, I grew up swinging that sword." Garland groaned out and instinctively rolled to the side. just before Catherine's blade stabbed the ground where he was just mere moments ago.

Garland quickly pushed himself up and raise his shield just in time to catch Catherine's blow. Garland thrust the head of the axe into Catherine's abdomen, making her lose the air in her lungs as she recoiled back.

Garland swung his war axe at her, aiming for the shield, hoping to make her drop the darned thing. Garland's attack connected, but Catherine pushed the axe away from Garland, sending it flying.

She quickly put the blade on Garland's neck, he could feel the cold steel sword bite against his flesh.

"Pick up your axe, we're going again." With that Catherine walked back to the starting position and waited for Garland to pick up his weapon and follow suit.

[Garland]

Garland picked up the axe and stood a few paces from Sera Catherine.

He took a deep breath and thumbed the Myri idol he wore around his neck. He waited for the start of the sparing match and quickly stared at his axe.

They were using real weapons and they were in as close to a real battle as it could get. The only way to lose and to be open with no way of defending in time and have your sparing partner poised to deal a fatal blow.

"On the count of three." Catherine rushed forward, a sharp swing taking Garland by surprise. He ducked quickly stepped back, trying to get his barrings. "Three!"

Garland gave a growl of annoyance, mostly directed at himself, he should have known Catherine's tricks by now, she had always said she trained Garland to fight real battles, not some stupid game, in a real fight no one would count down when they were going to attack.

Garland rushed forward, a flurry of swings from his axe put Catherine on the defensive, blocking every predictable blow and telegraphed move with relative ease.

Garland then tried the same tactic he thought of before. He swung hard, but not with his full might and pretended to be recoil back from the attack.

Catherine saw the false opening and went in to deal a finishing blow. Garland twisted back and dodged the thrust from the sword. Garland slammed his elbow down on Catherine's hand and made her drop the weapon.

Garland created the opening and he then rushed in for the kill, he pulled back and with most of his might he swung at Catherine, and stopped right before impacting her neck. Garland was breathing deeply and a small smile formed on his lips.

"I got careless. Let's go again."

[Garland]

Garland grinned and wiped the sweat from his brow.
He raised up his axe and gave a few cautionary swings with his axe and walked over to the starting position and stretched his legs

Garland looked at Catherine, and when the signal to begin was sounded, he quickly dropped into a defensive stance, he looked at Catherine's blue eyes, watching her watch him, he circled around her while she stood there with her defenses up.

Garland's eyes looked down, to her shield, she was hiding her other hand from him, masking her movements, she wasn't using her shield for defense, she was using it for concealment.

Garland rushed forward, his hand swung clumsily over her head, she ducked easily, and with a simple thrust from her blade she had almost run Garland through, luckily Garland had his shield to his chest, and deflected the blow.

He hopped back, on the defensive, Catherine continued the assault, a quick slash from the left, another from the right, Garland deflected both with some effort but he did not see the shield going towards his face.

Garland felt the shield bash his face, he staggered back but did not go down, he grabbed Catherine's shield and forced it to have an opening. He kicked her right in the gut, but she stepped back in the nick of time, minimizing the damage Garland would have done if the kick landed proper.

Both Garland and Catherine stepped back both doing on the defensive and catching their breaths. Garland mimiced Catherine's stance, hiding his weapon hand from her. He lunged forward, going for a low swing.

Catherine saw that Garland's movements were quick, but they were also telegraphed, she nimbly side-stepped the swing and pummeled Garland's face with her shield. Garland didn't quite have solid footing and he fell with an annoyed grunt.

"My jaw hurts..." He cracked his knuckles and neck and then stood up. "Another round."

[Garland]

Garland wiped off the bit of blood that was running down his nose, he had gotten a lucky hit before, but the difference of skill was starting to show, for every hit Garland gave, Catherine gave back three.

This was a losing battle, but a learning experience nonetheless. Garland looked at his axe and then to Catherine. She looked ready and was waiting on Garland.

Catherine signaled the start of the fight, Garland took off in a dash towards Catherine, closing in the fifteen feet they were apart in a flash, he threw a punch with his weapon arm and then followed up with a backhanded slash.

Catherine saw Garland closing in, he was quick but she was just a bit quicker, she blocked Garland's punch and slash with her shield and pushed Garland back, she thrust her sword forward, aiming at Garland's head.

Garland sidestepped the attack, barely missing his face. He dropped back, shield raised and axe hanging back. Garland rushed in, Catherine followed suit.

The knight and squire's weapons clashed with a metallic ching and they stood there for a moment, not giving the other an inch.

Catherine was strong but Garland was stronger, he pushed hard and Catherine was getting pushed back. It seemed Garland had the advantage.

Or so he thought.

Catherine pushed back once more, but Garland replied with a stronger push, when Garland pushed, Catherine sidestepped to the side, breaking away from Garland and letting him fall forward.

With that, she hovered the blade over Garland's chest. "Good progress, today. Head to the range, and fire off a few crossbow bolts to cool down."

Garland sighed. "Training in another weapons counts as cooling down for you?"

"At least you'll be standing still rather than dancing around the battlefield. Come on, get up." She held out her hand and Garland took it.

[Garland]

"One more round, then I'll go to the range." Garland said and picked up his axe for one more round.

Catherine shook her head, not as a negative reply, more like a parent shaking their head to a child that just doesn't know when to give up. She held out her sword and smiled. "Fine."

Garland went back to the starting position, he thumbed the idol that was hanging around his neck, not sure if he should be praying for strength or something, Garland was not a very religious person, this was entirely new to him.

With a nod he signaled he was ready and took a stance. Catherine went on the offensive, and threw a swing aimed at Garland's torso. Garland hopped back and went on the defensive.

Garland saw that she was testing his defenses, he was getting tired, and so was she but she looked as if she was planning on planting him on the ground quickly. Garland rushed forward, axe swinging from left to right, wild attacks with no real bearings as to where they were going to hit.

Garland's attacks were just distractions while he stepped in close and swept his leg under Catherine's leg.

She had been too focused on his swings and evading to notice the leg sweep. She fell backwards, but she quickly rolled to the side, avoiding Garland's downward attack.

She pushed herself up and then closed in on Garland with a thrust of her blade. Garland took the blade with his shield and deflected it off to the side, Catherine retaliated with a shield bash aimed at Garland's face.

Garland ducked low and and attacked her armored stomach area. It was a solid hit, strong enough to knock her a bit back. She looked a bit surprised but it was quickly hidden with a look of pride. "You're pretty good with fighting up close but knights are versatile, we can be archers or shield-bearers, and you need to learn your shots. Go on then."

Garland nodded, took Catherine's training sword and placed them back on the racks. He went off to the storage area to take a hand-crossbow and a quiver of bolts to train.

[Garland]

Garland picked a hand-crossbow and a quiver of bolts, there were a few other squires and knights on the range, firing arrows, bolts, throwing spears and axes, some were even using Reimancy to throw air, stone, or water, but not fire for obvious reasons.

Garland sighed and walked up to one of the empty ranges, he wanted to train his Reimancy as well, but he kept it a secret from the knights, people would ask who would initiate him and that could mean trouble for his friend and initiator.

Garland didn't know if mages were kept an eye on in Syliras, but he'd rather be safe than sorry, also if he were ever to leave the knights due to choice or due to being forced out, he'd rather have a trick up his sleeve.

Garland counted and primed the crossbow, pulling back the string until it clipped into place, he drew a bolt and placed it into the crossbow and aimed, the target was around twenty feet away from where Garland was standing.

Garland fired, the bolt whizzed through the air, hitting the target, not a direct hit, but still a hit. Garland counted twenty-eight seconds for him to prime his crossbow and aim then shoot.

That was pretty bad, Garland almost didn't quite hit the target and the bolt landed right outside the rings of the target. Garland gave an annoyed grunt and readied himself for another shot.

Garland needed to be faster, he pulled back the crossbow, not even waiting to make sure the string was in place, he drew the bolt quickly and placed it into the crossbow, he wasn't delicate and he did his priming in a heavy handed manner.

The crossbow fired prematurely, hitting the ground in front of Garland, he cursed, still counting the ticks since he last fired.

He pulled back again, this time, making sure the string is securely in place, he placed the bolt, aimed and fired.

This time the bolt missed and he could do nothing but curse. "Shyke... That was at least a chime, ugh... A good warrior would have closed double the distance of that target and run me through by that point."

[Garland]

Garland started counting again, he pulled back the crossbow string, this time he made sure he was doing it right.

He made sure the string clipped into face and took out his bolt, he placed it into the groove of his crossbow, and pulled up his weapon to aim.

His hand swayed, the wind kicked up, and there were distractions all around, it wasn't a surprise to see Garland's shot had gone wide. The bolt whizzed pass the target, landing beyond it and sticking to the ground.

Garland counted thirty seconds to load and fire. Good time if the enemy was at ranged or if one was distracted by something or someone else.

Garland hated ranged training, it was boring, frustrating and he was just not good at it. Garland sighed, he had to do this. Garland massaged his hands a bit, his spar with Sera Catherine had numbed his hands a bit. Maybe that is what's throwing off his aim.

Or maybe he's just shyke at shooting.

Garland readied his hand and then started counting, he pulled back the string until it clicked into place, he quickly pulled out a bolt but fumbled it to the ground. "Shyke!" He didn't bother bending down and just took another bolt from his quiver.

He loaded and aimed. He fired down range and hit the target, only barely, the bolt didn't stick well to the target and fell off and into the ground.

"I really hate ranged training!"

Catherine sat by the side, under the shade of a tree. "Keep shooting, you're a frontliner Garland, you don't need to aim at something to hit them when they're rushing at you. Get good and draw quicker."

[Garland]

Garland grumbled and aimed down to the range. "It's not far, the wind's not strong, that shouldn't be a problem. Steady my hand and I should hit it."

Garland brought down the crossbow, pulled up the string and primed it. Another bolt went into the groove, a perfect fit for the crossbow.

Garland raised up his weapon, aimed down using the fletching of the bolt as a sight, and fired, Garland didn't even look and quickly pulled the crossbow string back, and repeated the steps.

The first bolt hit the target, not a direct hit, but closer to the red circle in the middle compared to his other shots.

Garland aimed another shot then fired. It was still a hit, but no where near the bulls-eye. Garland counted forty eight ticks for those two shots, the second shot was quicker since his muscles remembered where they were a few ticks ago, but it wasn't enough.

He needed to be fast, accurate and precise.

"The crossbow is steady, unlike the bow..." He recited to himself, he had taken notes about ranged weaponry, hoping that would help him with his training, it did but only marginally.

"Slow but strong, range is fixed, easy to use, can be used better in close quarters... Ummm..." Garland looked at the target, his hand was still shaking, he should have started with this training rather than the spar.

Garland turned to Catherine. "How much longer do I have to do this?"

"As long as I say so." She had been brought a mug and a pitcher of water and had her feet propped up on a stump. "Go on, keep firing."

[Garland]

Garland was getting sick and tired of the range, not only was it boring, he also felt like he wasn't improving, Garland held his tongue, complaining about it wouldn't help.

Despite his mental protests and trekked on with his training, even if his mind didn't remember the skills he was learning, his body would remember, his instincts would guide him when his mind would fail.

And it fails often.

Garland looked right and left to the others in the range, some were like Garland, slow of firing, fumbling, unconfident, lacking strength with the shots.

Others were like blazes, quick as a whip, firing arrow after arrow, accurate and precise. At least they were compared to Garland, in truth the people at the range were ranging from novice to average at best.

It seems the truly great archers were either out shooting moving targets in the forests or off doing gods know what.

Garland could stay here and stare at the others all day, it wouldn't help him as much as actually shooting his own weapon.

Garland slapped his cheeks. "Right, focus. Let's do this." Garland psyched himself up, he needed energy, even if artificial.

Garland looked at the range, he took out a bolt and held it between his thumb and pointer finger. He pulled back the string, not taking his eyes off the target.

Nothing, but his target was in Garland's mind, he was focused, he placed the bolt into the groove, aimed and fired.

The bolt flew, the straightest Garland has shot today, still it didn't quite hit the mark, it veered off to the left, it was close but not close enough. Garland sighed and said. "That's frustrating." Then he readied himself for another shot.

[Garland]

Garland was getting the hang of this, at least a little bit. His aim was nowhere near perfect, nor was his speed anything to write home about but there was some improvement.

Garland looked up in the sky, it was getting late, the sky was just about to turn to a bright orange of dusk. Garland had a few more chimes before he'd retire his crossbow and head off to the mess hall for food.

Garland loaded up another bolt, Catherine had a few of the other squires move Garland's target back to thirty-five feet since he was almost mastering the twenty foot range. It felt like Garland was back to square one.

He fired, and missed his mark entirely, the light wasn't helping either, but this was better than getting complacent with the twenty foot shot.

Garland pulled back the bowstring, the string had dug into his fingers and it left visible marks, he thought about investing in some gloves or some sort of coverings for his fingers.

He placed the bolt into the groove and raised up his arm to aim. He aimed a bit higher this time, then fired.

The bolt flew through the air, and landed on the target, just below the bullseye. Garland was almost there, maybe he could actually hit a moving target soon.

With that, the sun was almost gone, it was time to get some grub!

"Ah! Ah! Where do you think you're going? You still have a patrol to get to."

Garland sighed and grumbled and walked off to return his gear and grab something to eat on the go.