My training session started with me tripping over the hilt of my khanda and almost skewering myself. Stefano stifled his laughter at nearly having a kebab for a fighting buddy and motioned me to keep going. We started with weapons practice, with us sparring with each other and testing out our imprint weapons. Stefano didn't participate all that much, maybe because of his experience, but he did swoop in every now and then to correct us and give advice.
"Ajay, fix your stance. Anybody could disarm you the way you're holding that weapon. Here-" He held my hand with his muscular and smooth palms and shifted my grip slightly. He stepped back and showed me what he had changed, "Remember, wrap the hilt around the palm, not the fingers." I followed his advice and I have to say I was able to swing a lot more confidently. I could hear him in other mock fights as well.
"Daksh, your defense is your greatest asset. Don't try turning your shield into a sword, it's as good as it is."
"Distance, Shawn, distance! You are a sniper, start acting like one!"
As I was sparring with Khadija, I could see she was struggling with her dagger. She kept leaping at me to close the distance, but with my khanda I was constantly able to keep her at bay, even though her launches were pushing me back. She went for a hail-mary stab, clearly not going easy on me despite my little rookie status among the group. What happened next felt almost like an out of body experience. I twisted and jumped above her in a corkscrew flip, landing behind her. That's when I slashed at her heels, causing her to fall flat on her face.
I breathed heavily, unsure of what I just did. It felt like I had concentrated my power into something at a higher level than my mortal body. Khadija whirled around, sweat and dirt smearing her face. Even Stefano looked impressed. He gave me a knowing smile and whispered something to Shawn. Then he whistled loudly, our signal to continue sparring.
Overtime, I began channeling that energy I first felt with Khadija into finding a way around the wall of steel and muscle that was Daksh. The boy looked quite unassuming and weak, but man did he pack a punch with that shield. It was circular and bulged in the center, giving it all the force of a good wallop, as I had figured out a few times. Through my new found dexterity, maybe a gift from my godly father, I was looking to find a breakthrough. I was leaping, rolling, sliding, dancing around his strikes like a gymnast when out of nowhere I felt a tingle in my head, a voice screaming, warning me...
I whipped around, twisting my body and found myself holding an arrow aimed straight for where my lungs would have been. Daksh hadn't even raised his shield yet. I panted, shocked at myself once again. I just grabbed a speeding arrow out of thin air like it was nothing. Daksh looked at me in awe, his eyes darting between the arrow and I, as did Stefano and Shawn, who has shot the arrow. He quickly raised his hands.
"I didn't want to do it, mate! Stefano, this bugger! He told me to do it! I swear I wasn't trying to-"
Stefano chuckled a little, putting down Shawn's hands. He pointed at a spot above my head, "It's fine, it just means I won the bet."
I looked up to see what everyone was staring at above my head and saw a storm of neon blue sparks floating around me, buzzing with an energy like they were alive. I crawled backwards to get a better look at the swarm of sparks above me. What at first looked like a bunch of random sparks floating around like a group of irritated gnats soon started forming together to form an image, like those drone shows I'd seen in Vegas on TV.
They moved together to create an insignia that depicted a peacock feather interwoven in an ornate flute. Stefano walked closer to me, smiling and offering his hand to me, "Rise, my man, rise, Ajay, son of Krishna."