Draga Of The Vanguard - Chapter 7 Training

“Are we out of sight yet?” asked Morte. “Only Drag’s following…” said Gars. “Then I guess it’s okay now.” said Pierre. “Indeed.” replied May.

The four children instantly fell to their knees and entered a state of pure paranoia.

“If he had hit me with that charge…”

“Imagine if Rei completely missed the eye…when it hit the nose I was scared sh*tless.”

“You got off lucky…I got hit…if not for this ring…”

“…Ogre….we kill ogre…”

Rei finally caught up to the rest, but saw a strange thing in front of him. The ones who had defeated an ogre so calmly were now curled up on the ground, crying. “What’s happening?” asked Rei as he pulled out his sword and started looking around for demons. “It’s standard Vanguard practice to only breakdown after a battle.” said Morte, rubbing the area where the ogre had hit him. “At least we know now…we can live in this world.” he said, wiping his eyes. The others followed his example, got up, and put their right hands on their chests. Then they walked towards their outpost. Except for May, who looked at Rei while she crouched. “Draga…you’ll teach me language. Remember?” she said while extending her arm.

Rei smiled and helped her up. “We made a deal. Don’t forget your end though.” he said

“Aye.”

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“That was abnormal. An ogre bothered to scale a wall. Wouldn’t it have thought to just ram it?” said Pierre. “Good point…We’ll send the blood to the sorcerer. It may be a new breed. Though its most likely an adaptation.” said Morte. “Definitely not. If it adapted it would have lost weight.” said Gars as he prepared to sleep. “Gars!” exclaimed Rei as he entered the outpost with May. “Thank you.” he said bowing his head. “Try not to lose your head next time. It’s painful, but if you lose your life you won’t get any closer to removing the pain.” said Gars. “I’ll tell you a story next time, for now, my back is killing me. Fighting a horde right after training takes a lot outta a guy.” he concluded, turning his face away and shutting his eyes. “Same here…I’ll see ya in the morning I guess. ” said Pierre, jumping to the top bunk of the bed Gars was currently sleeping in. “Yo…Drag.”

Rei turned his head to Morte, who was sharpening his dagger. “Good job today. Rest. Tomorrow we train.” Morte said, throwing the dagger at a wooden dart board. “Missed the bullseye.” he said in a low tone, then rolled over to sleep. Rei and May looked at each other, and while Rei smiled, May sat down on what appeared to be an imp skin rug. Then she closed her eyes and stopped moving. “That looks hard.” thought Rei as he lay on his bottom bunk, Right under Morte.

At midnight, May’s eyes flashed open. She got up and walked towards Rei. “Draga…come.” May whispered into his ear. “Okay…” he said back. Then he was dragged of the bed. “Come now.” May said. “Okay Okay.” said Rei as he lazily got out of the outpost. The pair went to the training grounds and stood in the glow of the midnight sky. Rei stood for a while, admiring its beauty

“Guard.”

“Wait wha-”

In an instant, May’s fist was in the side of Rei’s face, sending him flying. As he landed, Rei quickly alerted himself that he was probably training. He got up, but felt something warm flow down his nose. He touched it. It was blood. He checked and saw that May was wearing wooden knuckles. “This not training. This spar. Must guage ability.” she said coldly. “Its this is not training, this ia us sparing, I want to guage your ability.” said Rei, wiping the blood from his nose. He took a battle pose and prepared to block, but before he could close his arms a punch got through. “Too slow…watch movement closely. Feral Claws.” May said, and began to unleash a fury of devastating punches and kneejabs. She gave him an uppercut and finished him off with a side kick towards a pile of boxes. “Did you see them?” May asked. Then she saw an unconscious boy lying beside crates. “Tsag khugatsaa shaardagdana.”

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“Wow…what the hell happened to you?” said Pierre upon waking up to see a deformed monster. “…No, don’t tell me. You’re getting trained by May. I will miss you, old friend.” he said, patting Rei’s shoulder. Morte and Gars also gave their blessings and they left for morning training. May looked at Rei. “Tonight…stay up longer…need to learn language.” Rei looked at her with affirmation, despite the black eye.

On the training grounds Rei and Gars trained. Their swords clashed and Gars was obviously winning, but deep down he felt exceptional strength in every strike that he blocked. “Well since you’re training with May. I guess I’ll spare you some tips.” Gars said as he knocked away Rei’s sword from his hand. “Start the first lessons not trying to block frontal hits, but all hits.”

“How does that help?” asked Rei, picking his sword. “The Agrios clan are ruthless manipulators in combat. They make the enemy move on instinct and attack the places left behind by said instinct.” said Gars in a mentor like tone. “So when the enemy’s body is brutally beaten, they can direct their attention to finishing of their prey.”

“But that’s not how she fights…” said Rei remembering the night before.

“That was lesson 1, which is to test your reaction speed. Lesson two is when the Animal comes out. Here’s some more advice. Watch Pierre.” Gars said, pointing to where Pierre and May were sparring. May released several punches which were blocked by Pierre’s wooden shield. For each punch there was a perfect block. “How is he doing that?” asked Rei. “He’s giving her spots to hit, then blocking them.Whether its a demon or an Agrios, they always go for an obvious weak spot. But it won’t be possible without the reaction speed of a god. Or Agrios I guess.” said Gars as they watched the two fight for a few more minutes, then resumed theirr training. Meanwhile Morte was sparring with a member of another squad intensly.

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“….Are you ready?”

“Bring it.”

May rushed towards Rei and released a flurry of punches, of which Rei successfully blocked 6. “Oh?” said a surprised May as she stopped her rush. “You learnt Pierre’s technique quickly…even if its incomplete.” she said to an exhausted Rei, who may had blocked 6 punches, but had recieved 21. “You learnt to speak proper Elfish too.” said Rei, lying on the ground. “Well, it’s only to a level.” said May. “It’s only to a certain level…or certain degree.” Rei said while he collected himself. “I’ve been here for a month, huh. How many exterminations have we even done?”

“20” said May grimly, lying on the ground beside her ‘student.’

“Is that a lot?”

“We usually don’t get more than 5 to ten a month. The rest are usually just fumigations for floating eyes. Something’s happening near Asfleia. Something we shouldn’t ignore.”

“Whatever it is…we can handle it.” said Rei grinning. Then he turned serious. “Unless it’s a dragon. Then it’s mine.”

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Some miles away from Asfleia was a forest called Bois Monstre. This was a breeding ground for demons, and was still under consideration for burning. A black ogre was walking through this forest, currently feasting on imp meat. It suddenly stopped when it heard a rustling sound in the trees ahead. The ogre prepared to face its next meal. Suddenly the trees dissappeared in a layer of white fog. The ogre was covered by this unfathomable mass, and disappeared along with the surrounding vegetation. When the fog dispersed, the wildlife was shrivelled up, and the ogre was burnt to a crisp. In the distance a huge figure clouded in white fog walked, and the forest echoed ‘Kikikikiki.’