A few days had passed since the tour through the base. Unchosen and Ambigious were walking down a corridor towards the training room. Unchosen couldn't really tell how much time had passed since there weren't any clocks in the base and without any direct view of the sky he could only guess how long it had really been. After the tour he and the others had slept a total of four times but he knew that the human body followed a different rhythm when there was no sun serving as a natural clock.

In the time between then and now they had undergone a basic training in unarmed combat and also in using small weapons like daggers. It had been quite exhausting but it was nowhere near as bad as working in the slave mine. Today would be the first time they would train with the weapons they would be using on their travels.

Unchosen asked: "So, what weapon do you have in mind? I'll probably take a bow with a light melee weapon."

Ambigious replied: "Preferably some heavy weapon that packs a punch, maybe an axe or a great sword."

Unchosen chuckled, he had expected nothing different from his friend.

He then said: "TehLulz said that he would go to the training room a bit earlier to talk about something with Fire. He should be there already."

Ambigious nodded and said: "freeZe has her first magic lesson today as well, she wouldn't stop talking about it yesterday. Shadow seems to be a good teacher from what I have seen in the basic training, she is Fire's sister after all so that should be expected. But dude, there is something about her…"

Unchosen raised an eyebrow: "Hmm?"

Ambigious said: "I really don't know, she sometimes talks down on you but in a subtle way. There is more to her than that, she is giving me some creepy vibes, like she's hiding something."

His friend couldn't help but smile, he asked: "Sure that is creepy you're feeling?"

Ambigious was slightly caught off guard: "What? You mean I have a thing for her? Nah. And even if I did, Fire's advice is still strong in my head. You know, the one where he said that I should be careful what I say around her. I'm starting to think that he really said that for my safety and not hers."

Before Unchosen could reply they had arrived at the door to the training room. When he opened it, he saw that it had taken the shape of a fairly expansive room, the walls and the floor made from what looked to be marble. There were weapon racks lined up along a wall. In the middle of the room stood Fire, next to him was TehLulz. Both raised their hand in a greeting.

"Morning." Fire shouted.

They also greeted Fire and TehLulz and then walked over to them.

Fire explained: "As you can see, there are some weapons you can choose from. You can try out different ones but be careful, those are regular sharpened weapons. Don't cut yourself."

After that Fire made a few gestures with his hand and a couple of figures appeared in the middle of the room. They looked like mannequins but their bodies were translucent and blue. Vital organs and blood vessels were visible through their skin in red, bones were a darker shade of blue.

Fire said: "Those are the projections you will be training with for today. They are exactly as durable as an average unarmored human. After you 'kill' them new ones will appear. I will demonstrate it for you."

Fire walked over to a weapon rack and took a halberd, to his friends it seemed enormous but due to Fire's size it was perfect for him. He then proceeded to cut down the projections with his weapon. Unchosen was familiar with Fire's strength and speed but what he honestly hadn't expected was the way Fire fought here. Fire's movements were fast, simple and every motion Fire made had a purpose, there was an undeniable elegance about his style. First Fire beheaded one of the projections with the axe blade of his halberd and then fluently transitioned into impaling another one with the spear tip. This dance of death continued until no more projections were left standing. As soon as Fire put down his weapon onto the rack, a new set of projections appeared.

Unchosen noticed that something had changed about Fire, there was a red glow coming from between his scales, he asked: "Fire, why are you glowing?"

Fire explained: "Normally our internal body temperature is about double that of humans. If it rises above a certain threshold, our metabolism changes to use a chemical reaction that produces a lot of energy and heat but is less efficient, this is good for combat situations. When our body temperature drops below another threshold a different reaction takes place, which is slower but more efficient. This allows us to spend extended periods of time in environments like water, which is important since we are too heavy to swim."

Unchosen replied: "Why didn't you use that in the quarry or on our journey?"

"To access the more exotic abilities of my body I need drandinian Heavybrew in my system, the food in the quarry wasn't nutritious enough for me to metabolize any meaningful amount. I wasn't off that badly but a malnourished Mencur-Besh is a sad sight to behold."

Fire gestured for them to choose a weapon. Unchosen proceeded to walk over to the weapon rack and take a sword.

Fire commented: "A one handed longsword? Good choice. But I'll tell you right now that you will not be using a single type of weapon only. While swords are effective against unarmored opponents they do next to nothing against metal armor, which is where axes, hammers and maces are effective."

Ambigious took a look at the weapon rack and then picked out a fairly long two-handed sword, TehLulz decided to use a double-bladed battle axe.

Each of them positioned themselves in front of one of the projections, Unchosen lifted his sword to strike but then stopped.

"It does feel kind of strange to attack this projection, it is almost like a human. Very different from the things we were up against so far." He said.

Fire replied: "You will inevitably have to kill people too, better get used to it now than hesitate in battle and lose your life to some thug."

Unchosen shivered at what his friend had just said, it sounded cruel but he knew that it was true. Again he lifted his sword, this time he struck, going for a diagonal cut. The dark blade cut across the projection's chest, leaving a deep, red glowing wound. Ambigious went for a similar attack but despite being larger, his sword seemed to bounce off the projection, only leaving minimal cuts and pushing it back.

"What the hell was that?" He cried out in confusion.

Fire explained: "You need to align the edge of your sword with the direction of your strike, otherwise that will happen. Using a sword takes more than just swinging in the general direction of your opponent."

Ambigious struck a few more times in rapid succession, only one of those strikes left a deep wound. Frustrated he took a step back and then thrust his sword through the ribcage of the projection.

He said: "Well, that works too."

It was TehLulz' turn to try out his weapon. The axe was a lot more unwieldy than even the stone swords he had used in their travels. A lot of the weight was in the tip so it took considerably more strength to swing it. He assumed that it all was a matter of practice. He took the handle of his axe in both hands and struck the projection's chest. Bones shattered under the force of the impact and a sizable wound was left behind.

Fire said: "Quite nicely done, all of you. I can't expect you to be experts in this amount of time. I now suggest that you try all manner of different weapons to find out which one suits you best. As you will be wearing full sets of armor, you can choose any weapon you like since you don't really need a shield when you have armor. Also try some of the daggers, it is always handy to have one or two of those on you if your opponent gets close. Let me show you."

Fire picked up his halberd again, he also attached a longsword and a dagger to his belt. A projection in chain armor appeared on the other side of the room, it was holding a one handed sword and a shield and it was as tall as Fire. Fire approached it and the projection attacked him. It was clear that Fire wasn't using his full combat capabilities, he wanted to demonstrate something after all.

The projection quickly ran past Fire's halberd, making it hard for him to use it effectively. He dropped it and instead took the sword from his belt, using it to parry some incoming strikes. Fire's own strikes were effectively blocked by the projection's shield. The projection used this to move in even closer, now close enough to Fire where even his sword was ineffective. The projection lifted its shield and went for a center of mass stab against Fire. Fire used his dagger to parry the attack and now he stepped into the projection's guard and stabbed it in the throat with the dagger. The projection immediately dematerialized.

Fire said: "I hope you understand what I meant."

Ambigious replied: "Makes total sense. Different weapons for different ranges and as emergency plans."

Fire nodded and summoned a few more projections wearing different kinds of armor, this time they had regular human size and stood completely still. Unchosen figured that those would be for testing weapons against armor.

They spent a few hours trying out weapons and getting better and better at cutting up projections. Unchosen ended up settling with a sword and a mace for backup as well as a dagger. Ambigious had quickly changed over to using exclusively maces since he was getting frustrated with the edge alignment of swords. TehLulz had chosen a slightly smaller version of axe he had begun with.

At the end of the training they were all covered in sweat and completely exhausted.

Ambigious noted: "I guess freeZe has the less demanding lesson. I wonder how she is doing."