Chapter 21—Combat Training
"In martial arts, you usually use your body, and that is often useful," Rob told me as we walked along a hallway to a different room. "Sometimes, though, other methods are required. If you run out of mana, it's gonna take more than simple karate to defend yourself against a Kaiju creature."
He led me into a room lined with various weapons, both real and for practice.
"Select weapons that appeal to you," Rob told me, pointing to a wall of real weapons.
I raised my eyebrows at him but he did waver. I wasn't sure if it was wise to give weapons like this to a teenager, which it isn't, for those of you reading this. I went over to the rack and looked at the various weapons, ranging from bows and arrows to quarterstaffs and swords.
I perused the collection before grabbing a hardwood staff and two fighting knives. The knives appealed to me, but the staff was just for variety.
He took the knives from me and grabbed a staff from the wall.
His plan soon became apparent when we began fighting back and forth. I learned pretty fast, learning how to block his attacks. After I finally managed to land an attack he had me move on to the knives, handing me two wooden practice knives.
We fought back and forth again, but I was actually able to land several solid attacks on his arms and legs before he ended practice. I placed my things in my own little cubicle. I went to a break room to eat lunch (PB&J sandwich and a bottle of water).
"So, you're the boss's kid?" a duelist asked me, sitting down in the chair across from me.
"Yeah, that's me," I replied. "Name's Jacob DiCarten."
He shook my hand. "Michael Hanson."
I nodded and finished my bottle of water.
"So, how'd you get involved in this?" Michael asked me.
"Fear Fang attacked my mom and I," I replied. "You?"
"When I was a kid, I discovered I could summon and control creatures after watching your parents do so. I taught myself how to do the same thing and kept myself safe, being a homeless orphan and all," he replied.
"Wait, wait," I told him. "Did you say my parents did this? As in both of them?"
"Yeah, but your dad was different," he told me. "He was wearing a weird yellow glove."
I froze. My dad was a Kaijudo duelist? Even more, he knew the Duel Masters?"
"How was training?" Mom asked me, walking into the room.
"It was good," I replied.
When Michael walked out I walked up to Mom. "Why didn't you tell me the truth?" I demanded.