The Arcane Archer - Chapter 27 Dwarven Training

I put my hand up and asked for a moment to think. She just simply nodded and didn’t say anything. A couple of moments passed with silence before I spoke up again.

“You know your idea is insane right?” I asked.

“How so?” She responded back simply while taking a sip from a glass of wine.

“Just because you remove Aetius, that won’t mean the Humans will go back to their former selves. They’ve had many years of being like that and just removing him won’t change what they’ve been like.” I tried reasoning

“Yes, but we have to try!” She said with determination.

I rubbed the bridge of my nose. “I’ll help you kill Aetius and what not.” Her face lit up. “But that doesn’t mean the Humans will become nice again. That’s an entire other problem you and the other races will have to deal with.”

Her face lit up with joy. “That’s great to hear! Now we need to get you on the field and actually learn to fight!” She said with a bit too much joy.

“Wait wha- “I tried saying before two guards picked me up by the arms and started dragging me off somewhere. “WAIT A MOMENT, AREN’T I ALREADY TRAINED ENOUGH!?”

“Oh honey, you’re not even close.” She said with a tone that hinted at disbelief. “I’m honestly surprised that you’re still alive from traveling from the Elves to here.”

By now I was quite a distance away from the Queen, she just waved me goodbye as I was entering a hallway. Eventually I was no longer able to see nothing but the stone hallway as the two guards continued to drag me to wherever our destination was.

Once again, I thought to myself how weird this must’ve looked. Two buff dwarfs dragging a above average height (Average height is 5ft 8) Human down a long dark hallway.

It’s kind of like my life was some weird comedy adventure story that just started off with a random plot that eventually evolved into something different Nah, like that would ever be true.

Eventually after a couple more turns, we got to a large open room with a bunch of other dwarves standing in lines. Each dwarf was equipped with a weapon, either a battle-axe, hammer, hand axe, or Warhammer. Some of them were also equipped in medium-plate armor, the rest were wearing some light leather gear.

Once I was dragged to the front of the room, I was laid down in front of a dwarf who had a bunch of metals and badges adorned on his set of full-plate armor. The two guards two dragged me put their fist over their heart and their left arm at their side.

“GENERAL!” They yelled.

“At ease soldiers.” The General said to the guards before looking down at me sitting. “Ah, seems like you decided to accept our Queens choice. That was the smartest decision you could pick.”

He looked at the other Dwarves and said something in Dwarvish (which I couldn’t understand at the moment) which made the people standing in line laugh but the two guards to just force themselves to hold back a laugh. I assumed it was some sort of insult about me being human or something. The usual stuff.

Getting off the ground, I brushed off all the dust that I could from being dragged and did a slight elven bow to the General. His face showed slight amusement of me doing this and everyone else stopped laughing as well.

“You seem to have learned etiquette from the Elves. I’ve heard much from the Queen and it seems you having learned from the Elves was true as well. I am General Baern of the FireFist clan and I welcome you to the Dwarven army.” He said while stroking his long beard. “Normally I would make you pick an actual weapon like an axe or hammer, but I can see from the bow on your back that the Elves decided to ‘mark’ you for themselves. Here, come and show me what you can do with that bow.”

He told one of the other dwarfs nearby to continue with the training before walking me over to one side of the room that had less people in it and telling me to get my bow ready. I complied and got out my bow and knocked an arrow into place. Reaching for the back of his belt, he pulled out an iron mug.

“I’m going to throw this mug into the air, and I want you to hit it as soon as you can. Ready? One Two Three…” He said as he started getting his arm into a throwing position.

But before he said go, he quickly brought the mug down onto my shoulder.

*You’ve taken 5 Bludgeoning Damage!

“GO!” and then threw the mug.

Because I was hit by the mug on my shoulder, I let go of the arrow and lost focus on where I expected the mug to go.

“What the hell man!?” I asked the General.

He took a moment to respond and just stroked his beard.

“Just like I thought. You and the Elves are both way to easy to trick and focus to much on what’s at hand. Here, let’s try this again.” He went and grabbed the mug before coming back over to me and telling me to get ready as well. “One Two Three”

And just when I thought he was about to hit me again; I quickly took a step to the side and got my arrow ready to fire. However, the mug never came down as it was already up in the air. I released my arrow without aiming in hopes that I would still somehow hit it but sadly my luck of 125 did absolutely nothing as my arrow passed right by it.

“Once again, you’re too much like the elves. Those long living folk focus on their arts more then anything. They put to much work on stealth, magic, and archery over actual combat skills.” He said while shaking his head in disappointment. “I guess I’ll have to teach you from the very start like a baby dwarf. Come, throw your bow to the ground and get your fists up, we’ll force them basics into you.”

I looked at my bow and mentally thought of the similarities between myself and the Elves. Eventually I did think that I might be copying them a bit too much as I had a bunch of their skills and other stuff. Putting my bow and quiver on the ground gently, I got into what I assumed would be a decent fighting position.

“Ready?” The General asked.

“Ready.” I replied confidently.

The General hearing this smirked and then quickly closed the distance between us, much quicker then one would think a dwarf could do. Within a second, he was already in front of me and getting ready to punch me in the gut.

I went to Dark Souls my way out of this but sadly as I got ready to combat roll away, the punch already connected directly in my gut.

*You’ve taken 75 Bludgeoning Damage!

This punch lifted me slightly off the ground and when I fell back to the ground, the General didn’t spare a moment and punched me again with his other arm.

*You’ve taken 100 Bludgeoning Damage!

I stumbled back from this punch before falling to a knee and holding my stomach.

“You know, you’re not as fragile as the Elves, I’ll say that at least.” He said while ever so slowly closing the gap between us. Once he was right in front of me, he grabbed me by my hair and pulled my head up to look him directly in the eye.

“Can’t you just train me the regular way?” I pleaded

He just laughed upon hearing this.

“Kid, this is nothing what you’re going to be facing when we’re going against the humans and eventually Aetius. We don’t have time to start off teaching you step by step. We need to teach you quickly and efficiently.” He punched me in the face. “And this is the best way to do it.”

*You’ve taken 150 Bludgeoning Damage!

I took a quick look at my HP and saw that I only had 150 left. Blood was running out of my nose and down my face from the punch of the General and I was pretty sure that some of my internal organs were messed up from just the 2 punches as well.

‘System, what happens when I drop to 0 hp?’

[You’ll go unconscious.] The System replied simply
for visiting.

‘And then what?’

[I do not know.] It once again replied simply.

By now, the General had his fist near his head, ready to punch my face as soon as he wanted. The fist then started coming towards me and when I thought it was about to hit me again, I closed my eyes ready to feel the pain.

But it never came.

Opening one eye, I saw the fist right in front of me.

“Step 1.” The General said. “Never close your eyes in a fight.” And then used his legs to kick me in the guts, once again lifting me off the ground.

*You’ve taken 150 Bludgeoning Damage! You are now Unconscious.