Hello everyone! I am having some server trouble so I am taking this chapter slowly.
Chapter 8
Jet's POV:
"C'mon Thalia it's not just in the arms!" yelled Sam as he and Thalia sparred on the field inside a fenced off square of dirt, the rebellion had a large secret training area above ground for recruits to practice on, "Use your entire body! And thrust and swipe and block and-"he brought his wooden sword down at Thalia, only to swerve in midair to jab her in the chest, the sword bounced right off her armor but she lost balance and fell on her back
"Your dead" said Sam with a smirk on his face "you're going to have to be lighter on your feet"
"Well I WOULD be" retorted Thalia "if this Notch-forsaken armor wasn't so heavy!"
It was true; the armor was big, bulky, and slow. Jet sat on the bench watching, he stood and walked over to Sam and Thalia "I would understand why we needed this if we were declaring war on the train but I thought it was just a quick hit-and-run?"
"It is" said Sam "that's why when you get your lighter armor you'll be used to heavy armor, it will be practically weightless to you. I believe it's your turn Jet?"
Jet groaned and stepped through the fence gate
Sam's POV:
Sam watched his opponent draw his wooden sword, he put himself in ready stance and Jet mirrored the position
"GO!" shouted Sam and he swung his blade at Jet's right flank, Jet blocked and thrust at Sam's knee, Sam spun on his other heel and jumped behind Jet, thumping him in the back with the bottom of his sword hilt
"AAAGH!" screamed Jet, but instead of falling to his knees and handing him his sword in surrender, he stood. Sam watched with awe as he rose, the blow should have left him gasping for breath, that and the heat alone would have drained most of his strength, but he just let out a few shuddering breaths and advanced on Sam, sword poised to stab.
"Well done, you've followed rule number one" said Sam "never surrender without fighting hard"
Jet let out a loud bellow as he charged Sam, but when Sam was in position to protect him from Jet's "targeted" area, Jet pulled up the blade and slashed Sam on his exposed face. But he came up short and only grazed his cheek; Sam fell to his knees clutching his face.
"It seems you are not perfect all the time Sam" said Jet "but you did fight well"
Sam only let out a chuckle when Jet put up his sword and began to walk away "ah but I should have told you the second rule of sword fighting" as he said this he stood, sword in hand, and ran at Jet from behind
'Jet look out!" screamed Thalia from the bench" behind you!"
But it was too late; Jet was on his knees with many small cuts on his arms. He could only bow his head as handed his sword to Sam who said "the match is never over until one has surrendered" he paused, planting the sword in the ground at Jet's feet "or died" and he walked past Thalia.
"Why do I always have to train the new recruits?" Thought Sam "I don't want to see someone else die on my watch"
Thalia's POV:
As Thalia and Jet sat on the bench bandaging their wounds they looked around at the other training soldiers. One boy was practicing on the obstacle course; you had to scale a climbing wall, jump over some yard high barriers onto a platform. You then had to climb upside-down on a net suspended above you to the other side of a hole filled with mud; you had to do this course as fast as possible. But the skinny young boy on the course was speeding through obstacles like it was a walk in the park (which the rebellion had for recreational purposes)
Another training course was the hand-to-hand combat course: in case you lose your weapon, the course is made up of revolving wooden cylinders with logs sticking out of them. To complete the course you had to walk through and block the hits using special gloves, if done properly you could stop the attack without any pain, which was exactly what the man at the course was doing, walking straight through while stopping hits left and right.
As they kept looking around a large man in a grey cape walked up to them and said
"It's time for you to visit the armory to get your weapons for the coming mission, follow me"
He then led them back through the entrance to the stronghold down through the tunnels until they stopped at two steel doors which opened to allow them in. the room was very big and the walls were stacked with weapons of every kind, swords, bows, spears, shields, and things they couldn't even name.
"Wow" said Jet "you guys are pretty stocked up on weapons"
"Well we should be" said a voice from on the other side of a door across the room, it sounded hearty and crackly "or the monsters would be on us like feathers on chickens, thanks to all our mine train raids"
A man then opened the door and walked in, he looked to be about in his mid-fifties with brown hair and gray streaks, and he was very kind looking but serious.
"Now you must be the new recruits, my name's Godric" he said with a grin and a bow "now what do you think best suits you as a weapon?"
They thought about it for a moment and then Thalia said "well I guess I'm best with a bow"
She knew it was right; every time they did archery at training she got top score
"and I'm good with a sword, but I'm best when I'm using my right hand only, I don't know what I can do with my left hand" said Jet, shrugging as he finished
"Well for your bow why don't you go look on that wall, I'm sure you'll find one you can use" he pointed at the wall to his left which was mostly covered in bow of all shapes and sizes "now as for you-"
But Thalia couldn't hear them, she had already left to look at the bows, wooden bows, golden bows, bows the same height as Thalia, even one bow with two iron blades sticking out the top and bottom, but her gaze stopped at a bow high up on a hook, She took it down to examine it.
It was made of polished wood, so sleek she could slide her hand along it as if it was made of water, the grip was soft and squishy so when she put her hand on it the material practically molded to her skin. It was beautifully carved with soft curving lines that it almost looked like the wind had shaped the bow. the quivers at the end of the wall were very similar with standard feathered arrows but the bow she held had a special one hanging with it, inside had at least 20 standard arrows but 10 arrows with steel tips, and one arrow with a diamond tip, a golden shaft, and instead of feathers were iron triangles welded into the back made curved so the arrow would twist in the air to hit its target every time. It was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen.
Jet's POV:
"Now as for you" the weapons master said as he led him to his workshop in the back room "I have special weapons for survivors, no doubt your girlfriend has found her special bow"
"She's not my girlfriend!" retorted Jet with more anger than he wanted "she's just my friend, okay?"
"Alright, alright" said Godric "now as I was saying, I made some special swords for survivors" he pulled a diamond sword from the wall "try that for size"
Jet held the sword and examined it, it looked very flashy for his taste, a little too much decorative carving on the hilt, and the extra weight made it droop down in his arms.
"Maybe something a bit more simple and light?" he said to Godrick, who was examining his stance and strength, he nodded and opened a small cupboard and pulled out a one-handed sword a bit shorter than the other with a simple hilt and handle, he held it and looked it over. It was surprisingly light and by looking in he could see it was hollow inside the blade, the blade was also thin and flexible for more movement.
"It's perfect!" said Jet "now about my left arm, I think I could use this arm but not with a sword, any ideas?"
Godric's eyes lit up and he ran behind his workbench "I've been working on something for just such a customer, aha! Here it is!"
Godric lifted something jet had never seen before in front of him, it was a gauntlet, a standard leather gauntlet with a metal plate covering the top of the hand and half of the arm, but on the metal plate were four rods of iron going down to end perfectly over the fingers, right under the index finger rod was a loop of super thin cord wrapped around the finger, where the rods start just below the wrist there were springs attached to a release system triggered by the wire.
"Try it out" said Godric "when your hand is in make a fist with your left hand"
Jet did so and the wire released the spring shooting four thin diamond blades out of the hollow rods, he now had four diamond claws about a foot long each coming out of the gauntlet, razor sharp and ready to tear through anything, by relaxing his fist the claws slid smoothly back into their sheaths.
"How much for it?" Jet said excitedly
"Nothing at all" replied Godric, pleased to see someone admiring his work "I volunteered to give weapons to the rebellion and that's what I do, and I love every minute of it!"
Jet joined Thalia at the door with her new bow, he smiled and showed her the sword and claws, she showed him the bow and its special arrows, they both shook Godric's hand, said goodbye, and left to go try out their new weapons.
Well sorry about the delay I was dragged into the (shudder)… wilderness, to camp with family but I'm back so yeah.
-buiostella
P.S. no this is not the end….. I have much more planned for this… BWAHAHAHAHA!