Days of training turned in weeks of training.

Weeks of training turned sore limbs into small muscles.

Vas had lost a dozen contests with Sun and many of the senior recruits.

The failures only served to fuel his motivation.

Sun had taught Vas basic stances, but claimed that he knew very little in terms of two-handed weapon techniques.

Because of the lack of a teacher, Vas practiced on his own frequently.

When others went for afternoon excursions or got into relationships, Vas swung his sword.

Jade was often at his side, and the two had become fast friends.

She seemed to enjoy how blunt and quiet Vas was, and Vas didn’t mind having a sparring partner.

They often fought each other with extremely slow motions, and never even at half speed.

Because of this, they were completely equal in terms of strength and speed, and used the practice as a way of perfecting techniques.

Jade had adopted a katana, which she practiced along with her halberd.

Sun approved, claiming that having a weapon for close quarters or indoor combat would be ideal.

At first during their spars, Vas would use his blade to block Jade’s weapon.

This was the way people had fought in movies, after all.

However, after a few such fights, Vas noticed his blade was beginning to chip.

Instead of trying to block Jade’s weapon, Vas attempted redirection. He let her blade slide along his to the side as he stepped into and away from her attacks.

Even this felt wrong.

Vas decided to try a new approach.

Jade swung down in an overhead stroke with her katana.

Vas stepped lithely to the side and used the back of his weapon for a full block.

It caught Jade’s sword and deflected the blade.

Vas stepped back in surprise.

“That felt right, somehow. Instead of sinking in, your blade bounced off.”

Jade was nodding excitedly.

“It was like a chang instead of a ching!” Vas blinked. He supposed that was sort of the difference.

“Use different parts of the sword for different things. The back is better for blocking, and the front is better for attacking.”

Jade resumed her slow attack and Vas used the back of his blade to block again, attempting to use the time to set back into his stance.

Jade stepped around and left an opening, so Vas swung at her.

Jade used the side of her blade to knock his away, stepped into his attack, and brought the edge of her blade to his wrist before he could do anything about it.

“The side is best when you want to counter attack.”

“Parry!” Came Sun’s voice. Sun was standing to the side observing. Along with everyone else who had been practicing in the room before.

“It’s called a parry,” Sun continued.

Vas recognized the word from videogames, but hadn’t realized what it actually meant until now.

“Now, I think it’s time we all turned in.”

Indeed, the sun was going down.

One of the things Vas had not expected about being beyond The Wall was the lack of light.

The sun was the only source of light, and by night the stars and moon paled in comparison.

Complete darkness was something that make everyone uncomfortable.

Vas had heard that the edges of the army camp used extremely powerful glow-stick lights, which barely illuminated more than five paces in front of them.

However, in the middle of the camp, night meant pitch black.

Many of the trainees had taken to sleeping in the same sleeping bag as one or two others for a sense of security and warmth.

Vas, Jade, and the rest of the group headed to the section of the warehouse where sleeping bags littered the floor.

Vas was the only person who slept alone every night, even though his sleeping spot was in a corner.

He believed that one day he would be out in a place much colder than the trainee center, so Vas had promised to himself that he would only sleep alone, to acclimate his body.

“Vas, there’s a spot for you with me and Jade near the middle tonight.”

Selene, one of the older recruits, was 25 and always bubbly. She was going to the Scouts next month. She was blonde and white-skinned with a curvaceous body.

Vas was the favorite sparring partner for Selene, Jade, and many of the more beautiful women in the training center. He suspected it had to do with the ferocity he showed no matter who his opponent was.

Jade set her hand on his shoulder. “Leave him be, Selene. You know he likes sleeping alone.”

Selene kept her eyes on Vas.

She knew that he’d say no.

Jade acted like she had the man wrapped around her little finger, but as far as Selene knew, Vas had never had sex with anyone in the training center. And Selene knew a lot; she watched Vas constantly.

Ever since their first sparring match where Vas had knocked her out with a throw, Selene had been watching him.

It wasn’t like he made her heart skip a beat.

Well, maybe he did.

But there WAS something special about him.

The other men and women respected Vas to the point where they even revered him.

At first it was just the recruits who had come with him. Jade had told Selene the story of Vas leading their group through the tunnel then the snow.

But it had only taken two weeks of constant duels with the top trainees in the center before Vas had become something of a deity.

He wasn’t extremely handsome like Larry or Sam or Ethan or any of the men whose bodies were top-notch eye candy, but there was a sort of savage power to Vas that made everyone listen when he spoke. They followed where he walked. They looked where he pointed.

It gave Selene and the other girls chills, and some of the men she’d talked to said the same thing.

So when he looked into her eyes, she forgot to breathe for a moment. She knew what he’d say. It was what he said every time she asked him to sleep by her. She glanced at his long sculpted muscles before looking back into those dark eyes.

“Thank you, Selene. I will sleep alone tonight.”

The hairs on the back of Selene’s neck stood up. It felt like the entire room had gone quiet to hear his response, and Vas’s consistency just reinforced his image.

Selene smiled at him, “Alright!” She had already known what he would answer. She had just wanted his full attention for that moment.

And she had gotten it.

Vas turned away from the bubbly girl and nodded to Jade, then to each person he passed on the way to his sleeping bag.

He laid down and immediately fell asleep.

Somewhere around six hours later, Vas woke up.

It was pitch black, but this was the other reason Vas slept alone.

He stood up quietly, changed his undergarments, and tiptoed his way out of the room.

Vas dropped his dirty undergarments in the large laundry cart just outside the room and sauntered to the armory. He did so with eyes closed, having memorized the layout of the warehouse.

He ducked down and reached out.

When he found the miaodao, he pulled it off the wall and turned around.

He reached the training area shortly after and found an open space multiple paces away from the walls and combat dummies.

In the dark, he fell into his stance and swung with full force. He followed his initial swing with a twist of the wrists and continued making his sword flow from cut to stab to parry to cut to block to cut to cut.

Vas opened his eyes, and could barely see the outline of the room, his arms and his sword.

He looked directly at the sword and it disappeared, so instead he stared straight ahead.

Vas had found out that he could see things in his peripheral vision that he otherwise could not.

He swung again and the blade blurred, but this time he could follow the movement.

Vas smiled.