Chapter Ten: Training

(Hershel's POV)

"So, um, where are we going, Lon'qu?" I asked

"Basilio has asked that you two be trained. After all, we can't have mediocre soldiers." He answered

"Who says we're mediocre?" Frey asked

Lon'qu merely glanced at us over his shoulder with one eyebrow raised.

Point taken.

We stayed silent as we walked through the halls of the palace, which was very impressive, but not like other palaces. It was made of simple grey bricks and the decorations consisted of nothing more than torches and windows, but the place was enormous and made you feel rather small if you looked up at the ceiling.

We finally reached the doors to what I assumed was the training room. Lon'qu opened the doors and I expected to see a few practice dummies and some wooden swords laying about, but instead, I was greeted with the sight of dozens of people practicing with each other, tons of practice dummies lined up near the walls and there wasn't a single wooden practice sword to be found, instead there were numerous iron weapons of every kind; there were swords, lances, axes, bows and arrows, knives and a bunch of other weapons that I couldn't identify.

"So, where would you like to start?" Lon'qu asked as he turned to us.

Frey and I scanned the room a few more times before we answered.

"Ah, I'd like to start with knives, if that's okay." Frey said, still looking around the room in awe.

"Certainly. You'll find the knives over next to the swords, and the close combat instructor should be near there as well." Lon'qu said

Frey started towards the knives before almost getting skewered by someone's lance. After that, he was careful to skirt around the edges of the room.

Lon'qu turned towards me, expecting my answer.

Well, I've already trained a little bit with a sword, but on the other hand, there are a lot of weapons that might be easier to wield and to carry with me. Hmmm…..I guess for now, I'll go with swords and if I want to use something else later then I can try that out.

"I'll try swords." I told Lon'qu.

"Very well. The swords are over this way, and I will be your instructor." He said

Really? Huh, didn't expect that.

We walked over to a barrel filled with iron swords, Lon'qu drew two from the barrel and tossed one to me, I promptly missed it and it clattered to the floor.

Dangit.

I picked the sword up off the floor and turned to face Lon'qu. Before I could react, he lunged at me and scraped my ribs.

"Lesson number one: Never let your guard down, regardless of the situation." He said.

"Okay, that's all well and good, but you didn't have to go and slice me open!" I said

"You're over-reacting." He said simply

"Well maybe I am, but it doesn't change the fact that—GAHH!" I was interrupted by a cut to my leg.

"Lesson number one!" He said

Oh, so he's gonna be that guy, huh? Well fine.

I got back into my fighting stance, wincing slightly at the pain in my leg, and prepared to fight. I stared him down for a while before making a swipe at his leg. He easily blocked it and proceeded to kick me to the floor.

"Lesson number two: Don't leave yourself open after a stroke." He said.

Easier said than done.

I took a swipe at his leg as I was getting up; once again, he blocked with extreme ease and sliced my forearm.

Gosh Dangit!

We continued like this for several hours, taking short breaks every now and then. By the time we were done, I had cuts and bruises on every part of my body, I was exhausted and I hadn't managed to strike Lon'qu even once.

We decided to call it quits for the day and get some sleep. As we walked to the barrels of weapons to put our swords away, an idea struck me, I smiled to myself and kept walking. When we reached the barrel of swords, Lon'qu put his away and I moved to do the same. I lifted my sword to put it away, but instead of placing it in the barrel, I swung it to my right and struck Lon'qu's arm. I looked over at him and realized that I had not hit his arm; he had pulled an axe out of a different barrel and blocked my strike. My feeling of victory had vanished in an instant and was replaced with a feeling of depression.

"Good try, but you didn't really expect to catch me off guard with such a simple tactic, did you?"

What a douche.

I accepted my defeat and placed the sword in the barrel.

Lon'qu and I found Frey by the practice dummies, practicing his knife throwing. I watched as he threw his knives with deadly accuracy.

Glad to see one of us made some progress today.

We watched until his instructor declared that he was done for the day. Frey put the knives away and walked over to us. He looked like he hadn't even broken a sweat during his training.

"Hey, Hershel. How did training with Lon'qu go?" He asked.

I simply glared at him.

"That bad, huh?" He said as he began to notice my many cuts and bruises. "Well, I had a good day at least. By the end of my training for today, I was able to accurately throw my knives."

I sighed and said nothing and merely gestured for Lon'qu to lead the way. He did so and we began our walk back to the room.

As we walked down the halls, I thought about the figure in my dream.

He had called himself Omofrisit, right? Why did I feel like I should recognize that name, it seemed so familiar yet it also seemed so new and strange. And now that I've thought about it, his voice was awfully familiar too. Where do I know it from? Gah, it'll do me no good thinking about right now, I'm already physically exhausted as it is, I don't want to mentally exhaust myself too.

I was roused from my thoughts by Lon'qu, who announced that we had reached the room.

Ah, finally, I'll get to rest. I'm so tired I could fall asleep right here.

I was about to enter the room when Lon'qu stopped me. I turned to look at him in confusion.

"What's the problem?" I asked

"You need to go to the infirmary to make sure none of those cuts are infected." He answered

SON OF A—

A/N: I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, because I really enjoyed writing this one. Remember to leave feedback either through review or PM.

Thanks for reading!