Hey guys, here's the next chapter of Assassin's Creed Outlaw.
[Royal Woods, Michigan 1877]
It was around noon. John was in the forest, on a camping trip with his father. At the moment, Carter was teaching his son the art of hunting. John had his father's revolver in his hands.
"Alright, John, keep your arms steady and your eye focused on the target." Carter said as he crouched beside his son.
John focused on his target, closed one eye, and got ready to shoot it. As he took a deep breath in, he let the breath come out his mouth and began to pull the trigger slowly.
He pulled the trigger and watched as the bullet flew towards the target with ease. Surprisingly, he hit a bull's-eye.
"Not bad, boy. Not bad at all." Carter told him.
John beamed wide at his father's words and waited as his father put another target out in the distance for him to shoot.
John did what his father told him to do and aimed the revolver at the target, took a deep breath in and shot the target in the same exact spot.
"Wow, you're a natural." Carter commented, placing a hand on the boy's shoulder, "Then again, you are a Morgan."
"Thanks, Dad." John replied, blowing the smoke off the barrel of the gun.
John gave his dad the revolver before Carter checked the barrel and found it was empty. So, he smiled again at his son and tousled his hair.
"So, what's next?" John asked his father.
"Next…" Carter pulled a large knife out of his bag, tossing it a little before catching it by the handle in his hand, "Next we practice with this."
"A knife? Why?" John questioned.
"A knife is your best friend when hunting the enemy. But it also works when you're the hunted. And it doesn't make a sound when hunting your enemies. Plus, there are many good things about knives." Carter said before throwing it against the bark of a large tree, making it stay upright.
"Whoa!" John beamed with amazement, "But… how are we going to practice with it? There's nothing to practice on." he pointed out.
Carter smiled and brought out a big bow with arrows that were freshly made. "We shall practice with these, and then move onto the knife. It will make sense soon, son. I promise." Carter said before ushering his son to follow him.
Carter and his son stayed low to the ground as they crouched through the bushes. Before long, they heard sounds, but they sounded faint.
"Dad, is that game I hear?" John asked with a low whisper before he had his father's finger pressed to his lips.
All Carter could do was nod at his son before they kept moving. The sound was getting louder, as they got closer.
In no time, they were about 50 feet away from a male White-Tailed Deer. Carter got the bow and arrow ready before showing his son how to kill his first piece of game.
"Watch closely, son." Carter said before drawing the bow and pulling the arrow back as he aimed at the Buck.
"Always remember to hold your breath, just like if you're holding a firearm." Carter said before holding it for 3 seconds and letting the arrow fly toward the Buck's neck.
The Buck made a hacking sound as it fell to its knees. Carter ran up to the creature, knife in hand. John watched as his father plunged the knife deep into the deer's neck. Carter ran the knife from one end of the deer's neck to the other, its crimson liquid leaking from its arteries, down its body, and onto the forest floor.
The Buck twitched slowly before it stopped altogether and laid there on the ground, dead.
"Wow." John said with barely a whisper as he walked up to his father. Carter wiped the blood off of his knife and began to skin the deer. "Why are you taking off its skin?" John asked curiously.
"There's a good reason why I'm taking off the skin. It's worth some money, so that's a good reason why." Carter said as he carefully began to skin the Buck.
After a few minutes, Carter had successfully skinned the Buck, rolled it up and gave it to his son. "Put that with our stuff at camp and come back. But make it quickly. There's more to show you." Carter said before John smiled wide.
"Ok." John said running back to the campsite. As he did, he heard an eagle's cry from above.
When he was back at the campsite, he placed it with the rest of their stuff. Remembering the trail he came from, John ran back to where his father was.
"Ok, I'm back." John said to his father, "What did you want to show me?" He asked.
Carter urged his son to look closely at the Buck's meat and began carving meat from the body, slightly grossing John out.
"The reason why we do this is to keep ourselves fed. Which, I know you understand." Carter said with a light chuckle.
"And whatever we can't eat, we leave to nature. right?" John asked.
"That's right." Carter nodded in confirmation. "The circle of life is what it's called, son." Carter added with a bright smile.
"This hunting stuff has been fun. A little gross, but fun." John commented with a smile of his own. "So, we've done targeting, killing, skinning, and butchering. What now?" He asked.
"Now? It's time for a little knife-throwing." Carter said while pulling out several small knives from inside his jacket.
John eyed the small knives before Carter took a slight stance, grabbed a knife and threw it with an underhand towards the tree bark.
"Here." Carter handed one of the knives to the boy. "You try."
"Uh…" John looked at his reflection in the flat side of the blade.
John reeled his arm towards himself, and then tossed the knife. It hit the tree, however, unlike his father, it bounced off the tree and fell to the ground.
John gulped roughly before he plucked up courage, aimed at the tree, and began to throw the next knife.
The knife hit the tree, but was sloped downward slightly. Sighing sadly, John felt a hand on his shoulder and looked at his dad, who gave him a comforting look.
"It's okay. It was your first time throwing a knife towards a tree. With some more practice, you'll get it right. Okay?" Carter said as John smiled gently at his father.
Carter took a second blade, held it a different way than the first one he had in his hand before he threw it with much more force.
John smiled as his father handed him another knife and put his hands in a way that copied his father's.
"Now, as soon as you're ready to throw the knife, put as much force as you can into the knife." Carter said with a gentle tone before he stepped back and let his son do the rest of the work.
John aimed at the tree, took a deep but firm breath in before throwing the knife towards the tree. The knife twirled in the air before making contact with the tree, hitting it dead center and the knife was standing straight.
"Much better." Carter said while ruffling John's hair.
"Hey… is it possible to throw multiple knives at once?" John asked with curiosity.
"Actually, yes." Carter said, "Allow me to demonstrate." He held multiple knives between his fingers.
Carter took 3 small blades in one hand before taking a stance, breathing in slowly, letting it out and finally throwing the blades all at once towards the tree. All 3 blades stuck to the tree about inches apart from their spot.
John was wide eyed by the action his father made; he had never seen such an action made before in his life!
"That was spectacular, father!" John said with excitement in his voice.
"Thank you." His father replied before handing him a few knives. "Now you try." He told him.
Like his father, John took a deep breath and released it. He took a stance and tossed the knives. Each of the weapons embedded into the bark in the formation of a triangle, just inches apart from each other.
Carter smiled wide and chuckled deeply. "Very good, son. Now, we'll move onto armed combat. This is one of my favorites, Stick Fighting." Carter said before retrieving two medium-sized sticks that were semi-thick too.
John saw the large sticks that his father picked up and gave him two large ones.
"Here's the thing about Stick Fighting; this will make you adapt to situations, overcome dangers, and improvise the use of weapons when needed. It's highly effective when you're about to use it and can save your life too." Carter said before he grabbed his own sticks to use.
"Ok." John said, releasing a cry as he charged at his father and swung his stick, aiming for his head.
As John swung one of the sticks at his father, Carter blocked it with one of his own sticks, before he blocked one of John's other attacks with the opposite stick.
"Always keep your guard up, never let it down. Those are weak points in beating the attacker. Copy what I just did to your attacks." Carter said before slowly swinging at John's head.
Without hesitation, John blocked his father's attack, before dodging the next one. Carter beamed at his son's quick knowledge of Stick Fighting.
"Wow. Did I just do that?" John asked with a slight tone of excitement in his voice.
"Yes, you did. You're a quick learner, John" Carter told him.
"Thanks, I-" John quickly blocked one of his father's attacks that was aimed at his legs. "Nice try!" John smirked.
"Just testing you." Carter chuckled.
"This is pretty fun, dad," John told his father.
"I'm glad. But next time we're out here, I'm going to show you some good old skills I learned from when I was your age. And you'll appreciate me helping you." Carter said to his son as they continued to practice Stick Fighting.
"Hey dad?" John asked as he and his father walked through the forest carrying the deer meat.
"Yes?" Carter looked at him.
"What did all that training have to do with camping? Couldn't we have done that in the backyard or something?" John asked.
Carter chuckled nervously and looked at his son.
"Not exactly. You see, I don't want your mother to find out because she will have a cow." Carter said sheepishly.
"Huh?" John looked confused.
"Nothing. Let's just agree to keep the training part of our camping trip between us and never tell your mother, ok?" Carter told him.
"If you say so." John said with an accepting shrug.
As they walked to their campsite, they noticed it was getting late in the day before picking up the pace.
They finally arrived at the campsite before Carter began cooking up dinner for the two of them. He was making a stew using the deer meat that they had gathered, along with carrots and potatoes. Once it was done, he poured a bowl for himself and John.
"This is delicious, Dad. I thought Mom was the only one that knew how to cook." John lightly joked.
Carter chuckled to himself and smiled at his son. "I know how to cook some things, dear boy." Carter said before taking a bite of his food.
As they ate, Carter was thinking of how to make John's training more intense. "Son, I have thought of something to make your training even more effective." Carter said before getting John's attention.
"What is it?" John asked curiously.
"It's called Body Conditioning." Carter said as John raised an eyebrow.
"Body conditioning?" John repeated with some confusion.
"Body conditioning is an exercise that develops well-rounded and full-body physical fitness in order to improve the condition of the body." Carter said as he even put his hand on his son's shoulder. "I even know a good friend of mine who is willing to teach you martial arts that I don't know myself, while I teach you the basics of Hunting with Bows and arrows, and even Sword fighting." Carter said with a large smile on his face.
"That sounds amazing. Is there a point to all this though?" John asked.
"There is and I'll tell you… when the time is right." Carter told him rather vaguely.
They sat in silence for a bit before Carter looked at the sky. "All I can say is, you will be in the best shape of your life soon enough." Carter said as John picked up from what his father said.
Weapons training? Hunting? Martial Arts training? Body conditioning? John had a feeling that this was only the start of something bigger. Little did he know, he would be right.
Alright, that's the end of this chapter. I have not updated this story in about a year or so… I blame writer's block. Luckily, my friend Mike The Red Engine was there to help me. Thanks, dude. Hopefully the next chapter won't take as long. Here's the type of martial arts John will be learning: Muay Thai, Savate (French Kickboxing), Kyudo, Stick Fighting and European Martial Arts. Those fighting styles will be useful once he's fully trained. I might do a time skip in the next chapter that shows the results of training.
Speaking of which, the next chapter will start off in the animus but then return to the present with Lincoln who, having gained the skills of his ancestor, will totally know how to kick ass.
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