Xenarra: The Dragon Throne - Chapter 28 Slayer Sword Style

I went over to the fire, where some rangers were cooking a goat on the spit over the fire. It looked like it was nearly done.

‘Why are we having a goat for breakfast though? It’s an odd breakfast’

Seeing me come over, they cut a bit of the leg off, then put it onto a wooden plate and handed it to me. “Here kid, you will need it, get some meat on you. You won’t survive out there in the cold with how you are looking now. Have a drink as well, it will help your soul. Aura attacks are never nice.” He then handed me a mug, filled up with some brown liquid, which must have been hot as it was steaming.

Then I walked over to the table with Erebus, taking a sip of my drink.

‘It’s bitter and hot but tastes really good. It does feel like I could relax while drinking this.’

“Kid, they gave you some coffee huh. That’s expensive stuff. It had to be imported from the Traossa Empire.”

“The Traossa empire….I don’t think I have heard of it, sir?”

He looked at me for a second. “You are meant to be educated in stuff right. You got to know of the local kingdoms and borders. Please tell me you know that?”

“I know we are in the Taerean Kingdom. There is the Ovraton kingdom in the east, Slaecia dynasty in the south and the Waidour kingdom, which is in the west, all border us. We, alongside some land beyond the black border to the north which we only border, make up the old southern province of the Draconic Imperium.”

“At least you know the basics then. You are right but the black border isn’t an exact border, it changes every year. The Traossa empire basically makes up the border of our three neighbouring nations. There are also some enclaves around here such as there being an Elven nation nearby, which we have historically fairly good relations with.”

‘Elves! I never knew that there were elves near us. I wonder what type of elves they are, there are so many that they could be.’

“Anyway kid, that is the basic geography lesson of the region which we are in. We are lucky really. If it wasn’t for a lot of internal strife recently, the Traossa empire would have long conquered us and we would be under one of its many Arch Dukes.”

I took another sip of my drink, ignoring the meat. ‘ The coffee is so good. It tastes so bitter, yet it is so good.’

“Kid, finish up your food. There is nothing else to do, so I will teach you how to use that sword of yours. The basic military sword art is useless, definitely against demons. I will teach you the Slayer sword art. As you can probably guess, it was made by the Slayer for one thing. To kill. Though I will teach you the black set, which is focused on dealing with demons.”

I finished eating the goat meat fairly quickly after that and drank the last of the coffee. Then going back out to the plateau, I found Erebus. Though, now there were others out here, doing their own practise of various weapon arts and physical exercise.

“Watch what I do carefully kid.”

He went through the forms of the set. There were eleven in total. Nine made for attack and two for defence. They all were centered around one thing. Speed. The reason I was told made it simple, demon’s were strong in attacks and defence. Their skin was hard to pierce, so you had to be quick and hit their vitals to kill them.

He had me focusing on the first move. It seemed simple as all it was, was a stab at where the neck would be. But time after time, I got it wrong. Sometimes my arm was too low, others, it was shaking, some I got the attack right but didn’t take my weapon back correctly.

It took me till nearly nightfall to start to get it right. At the moment after I had done it right for the tenth time in a row, Erebus had a little smile on his face.

“Now kid, all that is left is to apply mana. You will need to enforce the weapon and your whole body for it to be effective. This is while you are moving, taking it away and sometimes while you have already started the attack. This is the hard part of the style: the use of mana. It makes this move into three different moves, depending on when you use mana.”

I froze hearing what he had said.

‘Use mana like that, but the concentration that will require will be insane. In a battle situation, it will be even harder. Let alone under an aura, like Erebus used earlier.”

Though as instructed I began to try, starting with my body as I knew I could do that already, then, I tried to enhance my weapon. I failed. Then I failed again and failed more for the next few tries. So I decided this time to start with the sword. It worked, now I began to slowly enhance my body with mana but I failed again.

“Damm! Why is this so hard?”

Erebus, hearing my yelling, came out of the cave.

“Kid, calm your ass down, it’s not meant to be easy. Especially when it was made by one of the best warrior and mage that the world had seen in decades as well as the fact he wielded the black sword. It was not made for you.”

I followed him inside and after getting some more food. After eating all up, I went back to the bed I was sleeping in. As I went in the other beds which were being used by people, now and their owners in them. Seeing me walk in, they all stopped talking.

The leader of the ten of them looked at me and spoke up. “Who are you?”

“I am Adoh, what about all of you?”

“Look at him, he is not a ranger. We don’t have to talk to him, he doesn’t deserve to be here. I’m going to sleep.”

The leader looked over at his companion. “Don’t mind him, he is just annoyed about how our mission was recalled. He thinks we can sneak past a horde of demons. Any way I am Dolok, it’s nice to meet you, Adoh. Anyway, try not to make too much noise, the gruby will kill us.”

“I heard that Dolok, and Adoh, you better listen to him. Now. Shut Up!”

After that loud yell, I went over to my bed, much like yesterday I took off my armour and took the dagger out of the sheath and put it under my pillow. Through the sword this time, I left in arms reach. I’m not sure why I was doing all of this. I doubt Dubh, who I have not seen all day, will do anything, but it is better to be safe than sorry.

I put my head onto the pillow thinking about the day. The biggest thing was being taught the new sword style. But I still couldn’t work out why I was being taught it. I was not a ranger or his family or even an officer or noble. There was no reason at all to be taught it.

‘Who knows except him? I might as well sleep and ask Erebus tomorrow.’