I regained consciousness abruptly as I felt a kick to my side, the sergeant said without a hint of concern in her voice, “Get up, that was pathetic.”

I attempted to clear my head by shaking it, but that was apparently a bad idea as it increased the pounding in my head, a sensation I hadn’t noticed yet thanks to the sharp pain in my side from the sergeant’s kick. I opened my eyes and the light was blindingly bright, it pierced my retinas and intensified the already impressive headache I was developing. I felt another sharp pain in my side as the sergeant was apparently not happy with my progress. Her subsequent words confirmed the theory that she was less than pleased, “I said get up weakling. How you managed to defeat the captain I’ll never understand, did Raha tie him up and give you a sword? No that can’t be it, you have all your limbs and if you were given a sword I’m sure you would have cut one of them off by now. Now get up farm boy, we are going to continue to spar until you can show me that you aren’t an indecisive weakling otherwise I’ll tell Raha that you are untrainable and that he should leave you here on the farm until you grow a pair of balls and some fighting sense.”

I ignored her taunts for the moment and tried to send some mana into my head to assess the damage… it didn’t work, instead I felt an overwhelming sense of queasiness I tried to force the feeling back but my struggle was in vain. I threw up. So much for my final breakfast at home. For the record it didn’t taste as good coming back up as it did going down. I didn’t let the vomiting deter me though. Clearly I had a concussion and I needed to treat it before the sadistic sergeant had another shot at my head otherwise I’d likely get permanent brain damage. Meanwhile Sergeant Kova decided to treat me to a tirade detailing how useless I was, apparently I was, “A baby who had an upset tummy,” she also wanted to know if she should, “go get my mommy so she can kiss my boo boo and make it all better.” I decided to ignore the various insults and focus on regaining my faculties.

I took a deep breath held it for a beat and then let it out. Then I took another breath, held it for a beat and then let it out. I focused on my breathing and calming myself down before I followed the breath down to my core and checked on the state of my mana. Apparently there wasn’t a problem with my core, I was filled to the brim with mana… so the problem was obviously with my control, which meant my concentration was slipping every time I tried summon my mana. Magic doesn’t come easy or naturally to anyone, it is something that every living being must struggle to control. The various beastmen races have cores which allow us to always have a source of magic nearby. Some of us are naturally gifted others have to work hard, but with the right combination of work and talent any member of the beastmen races can perform some magic.

But in order to use that magic a person must be capable of imposing their will upon the mana stored inside of them. That might not be the case with humans as they have some sort of chanting system set up, I’d had Julius do a couple of spells to confirm that. Apparently they use the mana surrounding them instead of inside them as they have no core. But I’m getting off track… stupid concussion. Anyway for a beastman it’s all about concentration and willpower, if you lack either then you’ll never be able to perform magic. I was currently lacking in the concentration department so I’d need to supplement it with pure willpower.

After calming my mind with a deep breathing exercise I once more went into my core and then after focusing every fiber of my being on collecting my mana I sent some of the hard won mana into my brain to try and assess the damage. As I suspected I definitely had a concussion, fortunately there weren’t any lesions that I’d have to repair so the first step was returning the blood flow to normal.

Fun fact when a person suffers from a concussion there actually tends to be a decrease in blood flow to the brain along with the cells within the brain going out of a balanced state. Sometimes if the hit is hard enough it can mess with the structure of the brain, fortunately for me the concussion was fairly mild so I wasn’t going to have to reshape my brain. The lack of blood flow was the big worry as cells starved of oxygen tend to die and when brain cells die you don’t get them back. So priority number one was returning the blood flow to normal. Thus I returned to my core and gathered up some more mana, not too much as I was going to be performing delicate work, but as much as I could safely handle. Then I pulled the mana up my carotid artery and set about restoring the blood vessels in my brain to their proper size.

It was slow work as I had to carefully navigate the circulatory system in my brain making sure not to expand each vessel by too much, but after far too long listening to Sergeant Kova berate me I finished the job. Normally I’d just pour mana into something like this to accelerate the healing process, but I didn’t really want to take chances with my brain. After restoring circulation I focused on returning the natural ion balance to my brain cells. Another rather tedious process, but an important one. It was also a lot faster than returning the blood flow back to normal as they hadn’t had as much time to get out of balance. After repairing the damage and restoring the blood flow I did a quick check on my brain to ensure everything was back to normal.

The pounding headache was gone, when I opened my eyes the light was no longer blinding, it was just bright, and while I was developing a large tender spot where my head managed to stop her staff everything else seemed to be fine. Of course having opened my eyes again Sergeant Kova proceeded to squat down in front of my face look me dead in the eyes and say, “If you don’t get up and get ready to fight in the next thirty seconds I am going to start beating you to death.”

I really wished she was joking but her low menacing voice indicated that she was doing anything but that. So I forced myself to stand, picked up my fallen weapon and got into a ready position. The Sergeant clearly wasn’t playing around and clearly had no intention of going easy on me, so I decided to throw the rules out the window. Whenever Dad wanted to spar the rules were always stated at the beginning of the spar, either we would be training in hand to hand only, or with only magic, sometimes it would be with both and on rare occasions he would show me different weapons, the spear being the one I saw most often. When Sergeant Kova gave me the quarter staff I assumed that I was only allowed to use that weapon, I also assumed she was simply trying to gauge my proficiency with the weapon. I underestimated not only her skill and speed, but also her desire to hurt me. Whenever Dad and I fought we normally pulled our blows, sure I could heal almost anything, but taking a hit full force could be lethal and simply wasn’t worth the risk. If Sergeant Kova didn’t feel the same way and if she didn’t want to explain the rules of the fight then in my opinion that meant that anything goes and thus it was time to magic the hell out of her.

The Sergeant came at me once again, rushing in and probably planning to use her speed on me again, so I loosened the soil directly in front of me in the few seconds I had while she closed the distance between us. I changed the density of the soil close to six feet in depth from that of hard packed soil and clay to that of quicksand. I noticed a subtle shift in the ground in front of me as the dirt surrounding the new patch of quicksand quivered slightly. Sergeant Kova apparently either didn’t notice or didn’t understand what the quivering meant as her right foot hit the quicksand and she immediately started sinking to the bottom of the pit. She didn’t go straight to the bottom, but with a further infusion of mana into the mix she quickly hit the bottom. I then hardened the soil around her so that she was now stuck in the ground with only her head and arms free.

Sergeant Kova was apparently displeased with this display of magic as she started swearing, “What the fuck do you think you’re doing farm boy, I said we were going to spar not go to a magic performance. Did your daddy never teach how to spar, or are you simply too stupid to understand what I meant. I guess I should have been more fucking specific when I explained what we were going to be doing. So I’ll do that now while you get me out of here so that even a fucking idiot like you can understand what’s supposed to happen. You and me are going to fight with these quarter staves, then if I approve of your ability to fight with one I teach you about your job as a fucking guard. If you can’t do that, then I’m going to tell Raha that you are too stupid to be let into the guard much less be a lieutenant in it.”

I nodded along with Sergeant Kova’s tirade all the while leaving her in the dirt. Then after making sure to keep my anger in check I responded, “Sergeant Kova, I think we got off on the wrong foot somehow, you see, you seem to be under the impression that I am some hick farm boy that Raha is taking pity on, you also seem to be under the impression I will allow you to beat the hell out of me with a weapon I have never trained with before. I think it’s time for me to clear up those misconceptions before you end up being left behind buried up to your neck in a the ground. Raha is my ally, he has helped my family a lot, but I don’t need him to claim what is rightfully mine, he just makes things easier. If I have to I’ll travel to the capital on my own and kill anything that tries to stop me. As for the quarterstaff you so graciously offered me to defend myself with, the simple fact of the matter is that I’ve never fought with one before, at least not beyond some basics. I’m only nine years old, Dad decided to focus on my hand to hand and magic, he said I’d eventually be able to pick up the rest so long as I learned how to move properly. So giving me a stick and telling me to fight doesn’t really work for me as it negates everything I’ve learned up until now. And finally the strike that knocked me out and had me puking when I woke up was strong enough to give me a concussion, if not for my healing abilities there’s no way I would have been able to get up without help. You need to redefine what you consider acceptable in a spar, because right now you have been acting like a savage and if that’s the kind of person Raha thinks is acceptable in such an important position then I’ll have to rethink my relationship with him.”

Sergeant Kova continued to glare at me for close to a minute after I ended my little speech before she finally snorted and said, “Good, so you have some stones after all, I was concerned when you started hopping around like a scared little usakin (rabbit). I was beginning to think that Raha had lost his mind when he told me he was bringing you to the capital. It’s good to see he hasn’t lost his eye, though the fact that you haven’t learned how to fight with a staff at this point in your life is a little disturbing. Now get me out of here so I can properly gauge your abilities.”

I was surprised by the 180 degree turn the Sergeant had just made, instead be being mad she actually seemed pleased by the turn of events that had landed her in the hole. I didn’t want to trust this sudden shift in behavior, but then what else could I do, it’s not like I could just leave her stuck in the ground regardless of how mad she’d made me, so I sent a pulse of mana into the ground and loosened up the earth trapping her. Then I grabbed her quarterstaff and proceeded to pull her out of the trap and back onto firm ground.

I asked, “So this was all a test?”

She nodded and did a little twirl with her quarterstaff, “Yes and you passed, if only just barely, had you decided to take the beating I really would have gone to Raha and told him you weren’t prepared to lead anyone. After all it can be noble to take a beating in order to further a cause or protect your subordinates, but if you take one just because someone is arbitrarily placed above you, then you really don’t have the temperament to lead anyone. First rule of being in charge, do whatever it takes to keep yourself and those under your command alive and capable of fighting. If you let yourself or those under your command get hurt without accomplishing something then you’ve failed as a leader. Now show me what you’ve learned about fighting so I’ll know what to do with you should we find ourselves in combat. The rules for this spar are simple, no overt magic and you are allowed to fight however you’d like, pull your blows so they don’t cause any major injuries and I’ll call the fight.”

I gave her a single nod, and began applying stone skin. I’d come a long way since the time I first started using the spell, as I absorbed essence of stone the change was now seamless and nearly instantaneous. Over the last couple of years I’d gotten the skill to the point where I barely had to think about it before I was protected, I’d also gotten the skill to the point where it no longer impaired my movements. I smiled as I felt my skin and hair harden then I launched myself forward. Sergeant Kova launched a series of thrusts with her quarterstaff which I’d like to say I expertly dodged. I didn’t because they were incredibly fast, but I did manage to minimize the impact by deflecting most of the blows turning the momentum halting attacks into glancing blows that made me glad I’d applied stone skin to my entire body. Unfortunately as I advanced she retreated, maintaining the distance between us.

With her speed advantage it quickly became obvious that my approach wasn’t working so I stopped and hopped back creating a little distance. Sergeant Kova immediately shifted gears and went on the attack, continuing her barrage of thrusting attacks. This time I was a little more prepared for her and I was able to grab quarterstaff as she thrust it toward my throat. She attempted to slip the staff from my grip but I’d already sunk my claws into the wood in order to trap it. While her attempts probably would have dislodged a fingernail or two under normal circumstances with stone skin applied to my body she didn’t have a chance.

With her staff in my hand I launched a side kick while pulling the staff toward me, forcing Sergeant Kova to make a choice, take the kick or drop the staff. I’m guessing she doesn’t enjoy broken ribs because she released her grip on the quarterstaff and proceeded to strike my exposed leg. After a couple of light hits to my calf which I was able to largely ignore thanks to the stone skin I threw her staff away and deactivated stone skin. She smirked and said, “Well done farm boy, the stone skin was cheating a bit, but I’ll allow it since I was using a weapon. Now it’s time to see how your hand to hand stands up.”

I smiled happy that she and I were finally on an even footing and proceeded to launch a series of probing attacks, mixing together jabs with leg kicks. She swayed in and out of my range, using her speed and flexibility to avoid my strikes. I wasn’t really used to being the slower fighter, but I’d experienced plenty of counters that I’d found annoying so I decided to try a few out. First off was changing the distance between the two of us. Normally I’d want to maintain our current distance as I was out of her range and she was at the edge of mine, but the range seemed to give her enough time to dodge all of my strikes meaning I was wasting stamina while she was conserving hers and learning my striking pattern. So I decided to shrink the distance between us, I did a quick step to close the range a bit and lead out with a jab. She ducked under it and landed a strike to my ribs. Not exactly a pleasant feeling, but because she didn’t step in with the strike my ribs were merely bruised instead of broken. I did my best to ignore the pain and instead tried to get in a strike of my own, she jumped out of range before my own hit could land, so I was back to square one. I tried a couple more times to get into an uncomfortable range for her, but apparently Sergeant Kova was comfortable fighting me at any range, so I needed to switch up my tactics, any more hits to the ribs and I might be looking at a break instead of just some bad bruises.

I decided to try for some counters, they weren’t exactly my strong suit, but I’d been the victim of a lot of them so I was pretty confident I could one up. To get a really good counter you need to show an opening to your opponent, one they can’t pass up. If you have a good feel for their reaction speed and their striking speed a counter isn’t that hard to time, the problem is making sure your opponent reacts the way you want them to. If they don’t buy that the opening is genuine they won’t strike and you tip your hand, they then know that you are looking for a counter. Before I could set up my counter I needed to get a better feel for her strikes. I’d pretty much figure out her speed by this point and while I wasn’t exactly used to it, it was also no longer a surprise. The next bit I needed to learn was her reaction speed, especially when opening were presented to her, of course they needed to be genuine openings so I prepared myself for some pain and over extended myself on a strike…

The pain was pretty intense, my liver was definitely going to need some TLC after this, but it was worth it. I confirmed that if an opportunity presented itself she would go for a punch over a kick and her aim was precise enough to hit vital points instead of whatever presented itself to her. I kind of figured that would be the case, but it never hurts to check, well, normally it doesn’t hurt to check. At least now I knew the opening I should present in order to get my counter off. I jumped back out of her range again and grimaced a bit, letting her know that she’d done some damage. Then after obviously steeling myself for the next exchange I jumped back in and started a series of quick jabs. She was fast enough to avoid them, but then the point wasn’t to hit her so I was fine with it. I continued sending jabs her way and then started mixing in some straights with my right hand. After she seemed to be getting used to the barrage I purposefully over extended myself, presenting an opening I was hoping she couldn’t resist.

My prayers were answered she moved in for a strike at my stomach and while I knew my counter wouldn’t reach her before she hit me, mine should do a lot more damage. I took the blow on my fully flexed abs, and boy did it hurt, it I hadn’t been fully prepared for the strike I probably would have lost my breath, of course Sergeant Kova was completely unprepared for the right cross to her temple. I pulled the blow otherwise she’d probably be dead, but I’m pretty sure I rattled her hard enough to give her a concussion.

She tried to jump back out of range but her legs weren’t really listening to her brain at the moment, her leap backward was pitiful as she really only managed to move her legs back a few inches. I smiled and launched a blow straight at her face, she moved to block the blow but it was like she was fighting underwater. She was so slow and uncoordinated that instead of finishing her off I pulled my fist up short of her face and instead flicked her nose. Then I took a few steps back and smirked at her saying, “Should we call it a day?”