Chapter 3 : Sparring
Corvus was very excited as today was the day he would begin sparring with his mother. He had sparred before, plenty of times in fact. It would mainly be with Bruno or one of the other, more experienced fighters in the tribe, but they weren't his mother, they weren't one of the best sword fighters in the tribe and, if what they said was right, all of Remnant. So to say he was quivering in anticipation would be an understatement.
Unfortunately his mother wasn't here at the moment, she had gone on an 'errand' as she said. She did this quite a lot, just disappearing without a trace only to come back an hour or so late. While Corvus was incredibly curious as to how she did this without using her semblance, that wasn't what he was focused on at the moment. Right now he is in a tent with the tribe's resident weaponsmith, an old Mistrali native named Cecil who is responsible for arming those in the tribe who don't have personal weapons, teaching them to maintain these weapons as well as maintaining the various spare weapons in his designated tent.
Cecil, despite being a man in his late 60's with a missing leg, is still a very important member of the tribe. He is a master at creating, improving and maintaining weapons and is the man behind many of the higher ranking members' personal weapons such as Raven's Omen and also Bruno's compound bow Cernunnos. He is also responsible for teaching the less knowledgeable members of the tribe about handling dust. You wouldn't want to accidentally set off a dust explosion and light the whole camp up now would you?
He is currently discussing different weapons with Corvus to help decide what he is going to use when he's older, but the young boy is indecisive.
"I'm not sure.." he mused. "I want something that's kind of like mom's, but I don't think I want the dust blades that she has."
"Hmm" The old man paused to think for a second. "Perhaps something like Bruno, a bow with dust arrows, but also a sword? Or maybe you'd prefer a weapon with a raw dust infusion?
"What do you mean 'raw'?"
"There are two main ways to infuse dust into weapons, young one. You can have a full infusion, like your mother's blades, where the dust is built into the blade and when activated, augments your attacks with the dust type imbued into the weapon. Or what I call a raw infusion, where you can use the infused dust to launch waves of elemental energy at your target instead of enhancing your usual strikes. You can also have both of them in one weapon, but that takes a lot of time to do and can be rather dangerous if done incorrectly."
"That sounds awesome! I definitely want both, but I still don't know what weapon to have."
"Do not worry young man, you are still growing. You still have 8 years until I start working on your weapon which will give you enough time to decide what you want. In the meantime, just focus on your training and eventually you'll find that weapon that calls to you. "
"What do you mean?" Corvus questioned.
"Everybody has a weapon that just feels right to them. It feels natural, like they're meant to use it. You just need to find it. Take some time, practice with different weapons and observe other people's and soon enough all the pieces will come together."
"Indeed"
Corvus turned around to see his mother standing just inside the tent, it seems he didn't hear her enter.
"You're back!" He said as he runs to give her a hug.
"Earlier than expected too" Cecil said, smiling at the scene before him.
"I didn't have much to do, just a message to pass along. I didn't want to be gone too long anyway, we're supposed to start sparring today remember?" She says as she looks down towards her son.
Corvus' excitement peaks again, eager to properly spar with his mother for the first time.
"When can we start!?"
"Now if you want, if Cecil doesn't mind me stealing you from him." She replies with a small smirk.
"Of course not Raven, go and spar with him. Though try not to be too hard on the boy." Cecil replies. "If you wish to talk again young man, don't forget that my tent is always open."
Corvus waves goodbye to the old weaponsmith as he exits the tent with his mother and starts making their way to their own tent.
As they reached their tent, Corvus grabbed his Shoto and went outside to the clearing behind their tent where his mother was waiting.
"Alright Corvus, time for sparring. Obviously I'm going to go easy on you, but that doesn't mean this won't be difficult. I expect you to fight as if your life is on the line, because in real fights, it will be."
"Ok Mom" Corvus said as he got into a basic stance, shoto held vertically in front of him.
"Three…" Corvus steadied his breathing as his mother got into her stance.
"Two…" He adjusted his footing to make sure his stance was perfect.
"One…" He tightened his grip on his Shoto as he finished preparing for the fight to start.
"Begin!" Raven said in a firm voice.
Corvus moved towards his mother at a quick but steady pace as she stood still and unmoving. Once he reached her he launched a heavy downwards slash which Raven simply side-stepped to his left to avoid. He tried again, this time launching two lighter strikes in quick succession which his mother also dodged before bashing him in the stomach with the hilt of her still sheathed sword. After recovering from the attack Corvus got back into his stance and prepared to strike again.
"Come on Corvus, go all out. Don't be shy."
He furrowed his brows as he went on the offensive again launching an upwards light attack, which as he expected was dodged, before following it up with a downwards heavy swing, which she also dodged but didn't follow up with a counter attack. He continued to attack but all of his strikes were either dodged or batted aside.
"Your training with Bruno is clearly paying off, you're not sloppy anymore" Raven said with a small smile.
Corvus didn't respond, he just continued attacking, launching a heavy diagonal strike down and to the left and crossed it with another fast attack, both of which were dodged. But he followed it up by spinning on his heel to his right and delivering a fast one-handed swipe which his mother blocked with her scabbard.
"But you've still got a long way to go before you're strong."
She pushed with her scabbard, forcing Corvus back, then drew her sword and launched a light swipe at him, making him dodge backwards. She didn't give him a moment to breathe as she moved forward launching several rapid strikes too fast and close for him dodge forcing him to try and block them which he was barely managing, many strikes got through his guard and hit his aura causing it to flicker. Once she relented in her assault he used the opening to launch a horizontal strike which she parried and it knocked the shoto out of Corvus' hands, she then struck him hard on the forehead with the hilt of her sword causing him to stumble and fall as his aura weakly flickers.
"That's enough" Raven said, holstering her weapon. "You did pretty good, you've still got a long way to go before you have a chance to beat me of course. But you'll make a great fighter so long you keep training, now come on. You need to rest to let your aura recover" she said as she helped him up off the ground.
"Ok mom" Corvus said with a wince, grabbing his Shoto and making his way back to the tent.
"We'll ease up on training while you recover, but we'll be training even harder once you're back to full strength. Now clean up and get some rest, I have to talk to Bruno. I'll see you soon" she said with a smile.
"Bye mom."
Raven left the tent and made her way across the camp to their small firing range where Bruno was keeping an eye on a few of the newer members training with bows.
"Bruno!"
Bruno looked towards Raven and got up from the crate he was sitting on.
"Raven! How was sparring?"
"It was good, his training has certainly paid off."
"The boy did well then? Good on him, can't wait to see the fighter he turns out to be."
"Me too, but listen. I didn't come here to chat, I need a favor. In a few days I'll be leaving with Corvus, I'll be taking him to a village so he can spend some time to have fun and unwind. I need you to keep an eye on the tribe while I'm gone, can you do that?"
"'Course I can, don't worry. You just focus on having fun with the young lad alright?"
"Thanks Bruno, I appreciate it."
A/n
I am just terrible when it comes to updating this aren't I? I did want to get this out sooner but a few things got in the way.
1: I have a full time job now, so I haven't had too much time to write, I'm trying to get some in when I can however.
2: I kinda lost motivation to write this chapter about halfway through, but I did make a start on the next chapter in that time. Next chapter should be a pretty decent length.
I'm not gonna make any promises on when the next chapter will release but I'll do my best to work on it, until next time!