Akaisha tried to take advantage of Norek’s confusion. She leapt forwards again, her hair trailing behind her. She landed next to Norek and swung sideways at him. He easily pushed her hammer aside but Akaisha twisted away and punched forwards with her left hand. Norek grinned and caught her fist. She gasped and tried to swing her hammer back across. Norek twisted into her blow, flicking out a swift kick. Her hammer skittered out of her hands. With a twist of his wrist Norek threw Akaisha to the ground then clapped enthusiastically.

“What is wrong with you?” Jane groaned from the ground. “You just destroyed me and you call me good, right before you throw me on the floor and then clap!”

“Because compared to other rookies you are! I’m a trained [Guardsman], you never had a chance, even just of hitting me. So you did well, comparatively.” Norek explained, his grin never leaving his face. Jane slumped down on the floor.

“That’s not really a huge compliment you know,” Jane complained as she accepted a hand up.

Norek looked at her thoughtfully, his smile gone. All of a sudden he looked older, more serious and slightly intimidating.

“You don’t even try to use your shield do you?”

Jane looked at the shield on her arm and shrugged.

“My first time, and I don’t have a skill for it.”

“But you should have gotten it at [Beginner Militiaman] 10, everyone does. Do you have a strange skill, other than [Weapon: Spear]?” Norek inquired.

“A sledgehammer skill, that's why I have this.” She replied, showing off the hammer. “It doesn’t activate the skill apparently, but it doesn’t feel too bad.”

“Ok, time to go again, this time I’m attacking. Try and not die!”

He didn’t leave Jane time to answer before thrusting his spear forwards. She took it clumsily on the shield but Norek whipped the butt of his spear around, forcing her to try to block with her hammer. The blow pushed her back, off-balance. The spear tip twisted back and poked her hard in the stomach. She barely felt the blow but a sudden shock froze her up and she tumbled backwards.

“Ah-ha! A killing blow that one!” Norek was back to his happy persona from the beginning. “Again.”

Once the shock wore off Akaisha pulled herself up and raised the shield and hammer. This time the [Guardsman] launched a flurry of attacks mostly aiming low. Akaisha twisted and lept backwards and sidestepped as fast as she could but blows kept clipping her. She was surprised that she had yet to take a killing blow. She felt that she was starting to get the rhythm, even blocking a few on her shield. As soon as she started to feel confident she deflected a blow with the shield and countered with a diagonal smash of her hammer. In a flash she found herself on her arse on the floor. Norek’s face appeared in front of her, applauding again with a twinkle in his eyes.

“Excellent! You even tried a counter, wonderful!” Norek was still bouncing on his feet and applauding.

Akaisha pulled herself up and threw her shield to the side. She backed up a few steps and put up a defensive stance. Norek threw back his head and laughed.

“Yes, what courage, truly you are the best rookie I have seen.”

Norek changed demeanours suddenly. Gone was the laughing, overly enthusiastic man. He was serious, his stance lowered and aggressive. His eyes flashed with barely contained violence. He dashed towards Akaisha, almost too fast to follow. His spear swept up, heading for Akaisha’s throat. When he was only a step from hitting her Akaisha lifted her left hand and shouted.

“Stop!”

Norek froze instantly, his spear centimetres from Akaisha’s throat. She stepped forward around his spear as he stopped.

“Hammer Time!”

She clubbed Norek hard in the head, dropping him to the ground. She felt her hammer freeze in the air, as if she had struck the ground rather than Norek’s head. Her arm vibrated from the impact. Norek twitched on the ground and rolled onto his back. He was smiling even harder than before.

“Incredible! Amazing! Fantastic! Brilliant! I haven’t been beaten like that in months!”

Jane shook her head slightly and snorted.

“Do you know any more excessive superlatives or is that enough?”

“What? Anyway, that's perfect for this morning! I am going to confer with Sergeant Vorn about a training program for you. Go for a few slow runs around the field to build fitness before lunch.”

“Norek, how can you say I won? I had to trick you into not “killing” me in a single hit? It’s not like that would work in a real fight.” Jane made air quotes as she said “killing”. Norek paused, half turned away from her. He looked at her for a second before sighing slightly.

“You beat me fair and square, it doesn’t matter how. You can’t cheat in a fight. You can cheat in an official duel, they have rules, but not in a fight. And as to your last comment, you’d be surprised I think, other than against monsters that can’t understand you obviously. Now go run.” Norek turned and left without leaving time for Jane to reply.

Jane had done a lap and a half and was just congratulating herself on her incredible stamina when a gong rang out. She slowed to a walk and noticed that everyone was heading toward the buildings. She followed them, stopping to pick up the hammer and shield. Everyone filed into the armoury, and then across into the big building. As she entered the bigger building a delicious odour of stew greeted her. She found Silah and the cousins three sitting together at a table and headed over to join them with a bowl of meat stew and a big hunk of crusty bread. She was greeted by an awkward silence, the four rookies shifting nervously in their chairs. Niyaka cleared her throat and looked at her cousins before addressing Jane.

“Is it true that you beat Instructor Versine in a fight?” she asked timidly.

“Well, I don’t know about that, if you mean Norek? After getting my arse thrown on the floor all morning I managed to knock him down once. And I had to trick him.” Jane replied, shaking her head. The other four exchanged shocked glances.

Chirembo looked at her like she was insane. After a few seconds he managed to stammer out a reply.

“But that was Instructor Versine, the best one-on-one fighter in the whole Guard! And you got in a killing blow! You’ve won all of us a round at the Guardsman’s as well!”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Well, Sergeant Vorn and Instructor Versine have a standing bet, that neither could be beaten by a rookie, the loser buy’s everyone a drink at the Guardsman’s Arms, a tavern near the Guard Headquarters. If you hit the Instructor with a killing blow then we get to drink!” Silah explained, suddenly much more enthusiastic.

“But aren’t you, we, all children? As in not allowed to drink?”

“Sure, but if it’s the guard buying who exactly is supposed to stop us?” Asked Munodo. Jane shook her head at the flagrant misuse of power. This may be a generally mediaeval sort of time period, but did everything have to be generally corrupt. Until you found an adventurer and a priest who weren’t, and then you got stuck in an orphanage.

Jane was about to say that it was the principal of the thing when the rumbling voice of Vorn bellowed, demanding quiet in the mess hall.

“Listen up! As your supposedly talented Instructor has been laid out by a greenhorn slip of a woman on her first day you all get to drink! Tonight, at the Arms. And one each! Akaisha, with me, now!” His voice seemed to vibrate within your very chest; it was that low and powerful. Jane shuddered slightly and rose to follow the sergeant.

“Wow, he must really like you! He barely even insulted you when he was talking about you!” Nyika whispered to Jane, “I wonder what he wants?”

Jane leant over and whispered back, “is that a Skill of some kind? His voice I mean.”

“We don’t know, some of the guards say yes, and some say he was born growling like the sergeant he was destined to be, and frankly none of us ever dared ask.” This time Chirembo replied. “Now go before he loses patience, he doesn’t have much to begin with.”

Jane left the mess hall and followed Vorn into a large map room. The map itself was huge, taking up all of the space on a large square table. It had various flags and other markers placed on it, just as Jane expected from that sort of thing. The walls were covered with shelves filled with books like “A Wilderness Survival Guide: Beginners Manual” and combat training manuals. Vorn led her past all of that to a small room in the back that turned out to be his office. It was a small, cramped room with barely enough room for Vorn to get around his desk to sit behind it. There was no second chair. As Vorn manoeuvred himself into his chair Jane reflected that she was spending a lot of her time in people’s offices at the moment. Far more than she ever really had in her previous life, at least not in such a short time.

“You’ve fought before,” Vorn stated, pulling Jane back to the present. She nodded.

“Yes Sergeant. While I was staying at the Welcome Inn the proprietor informed me about a [Wild Dog] problem. I found their [Den], and got a title for clearing it out.”

The Sergeant took a few seconds to think, before replying in an uncharacteristically quiet voice.

“You were barely Tier 1 then, and you went into a [Den] alone. You were extremely lucky that it was so young. It must only have been a few days old. Otherwise someone would have come across it and reported it. I shall assume that Taiyo only saw your apparent age, and didn’t know that you were only Tier 1.” Suddenly Vorn went back to his normal eardrum shattering volume. “Very well, it has been deemed that you are ready for the next [Dungeon] training session next decadi. Father Athair will be informed and you will be kitted out by the Orphanage. You will report here every morning at the eighth hour for training, even on Restday and Hallowday. Understood?”

“Yes Sergeant.”

“Good. Come with me.”

“Yes Sergeant. One question if I may.” Jane didn’t wait for permission and asked anyway. “Are you using a voice [Skill] or is that just natural?”

Vorn flashed a predatory grin and Jane froze in fear. He loomed up and over her as she tried not to quake. His voice dropped even lower and menace seemed to roll off of him in almost tangible waves.

“You dare ask me for information on my skills, rookie?”

“N, n, no Sergeant. I’m sorry Sergeant.” Jane stammered, her heart pounding. Suddenly Vorn laughed and the atmosphere of barely contained violence dissipated instantly. The Sergeant had a surprisingly nice laugh, comforting almost. Like a father laughing with his child, nothing like the terrifying monster she just saw. When Vorn finally stopped laughing and spoke, all traces of the hard man drill sergeant were gone.

“I’m just messing with you! Well partly, don’t ask people for their skills if they are not assigned to work with you. But to answer your question, yes I do have a voice Skill. Not that I need it all that often.” Vorn explained, jovially. “Don’t tell anyone though, or they won’t ask me and I won’t get to put the fear of me in them!”

Jane nodded hastily and took a few deep breaths to calm herself. Vorn gave her a few seconds, chuckling softly to himself, before extricating himself from behind his desk and signalling to Jane to follow him. They went into the armoury and Jane retrieved her hammer and shield. Sergeant Vorn slid a mace and a sword into his belt and hefted a tower shield onto his shoulder. Jane recognised the standard equipment of the other guards. She raised an eyebrow. Vorn saw and explained as they headed out onto the field.

“Norek is a special case. He is a Guard, and an Instructor, but also a monster hunter. Sometimes we send teams out to hunt down dangers before people get hurt. So he can use our normal weapons just as well as any of us, but is great with a spear.”

They halted in the middle of the field and squared off. Jane had guessed that Vorn had armed himself to spar with her. She readied herself, shield held in front of herself and hammer held high. Vorn nodded slightly at her, and she nodded in return.

Jane slipped into Akaisha mode and shifted her stance slightly. She lept forwards. Instead of slamming her hammer down she landed and punched her shield forwards. Vorn pushed her shield aside easily, but Jane used the momentum to swing her hammer across at Vorn’s knee. The Sergeant slid his leg back and punched. Akaisha swung her shield around and blocked. The force of the blow nearly knocked her over. She staggered back and only just managed to block the follow up. Vorn had yet to pull a weapon and Akaisha was already reeling. She swung wildly to force Vorn back. Vorn raised his arms in a boxer’s guard and stepped slowly around Akaisha.

All around them people had stopped training and were more or less discreetly watching the Sergeant fight. A few groups were even whispering bets on all sorts of things. Things like how many times Akaisha would be knocked over, or whether Vorn would even pull a weapon.

Vorn suddenly jumped at Akaisha, twisted around a sloppy strike and slid under her shield. He hit her hard in the chest with an open palm strike. Akaisha was knocked straight off her feet and landed in a heap on the beaten earth. She rolled sideways and pulled herself up to her feet. Vorn just observed, smiling. When Akaisha was ready he came again, both fists swinging. The young woman ducked and blocked as best she could but was forced to cede ground to avoid taking too many hits. In only a few seconds she was breathing heavily and had taken multiple glancing punches. She blocked a punch on her shield and avoided Vorn’s second punch. Seeing an opening she whipped her hammer at Vorn’s head. He twisted out of the way slightly, taking a glancing blow to the shoulder instead of his head.

“Better.”

Akaisha didn’t reply as she swung again this time at Vorn’s arm. He blocked the shaft of the hammer with his forearm. Akaisha punched her shield arm forwards and swung her hammer again, clipping Vorn’s elbow. Vorn threw a right hook out and she ducked under it. She countered with a low blow. Almost faster than she could see Vorn drew his sword and blocked. Cries of joy and of bets won rang out around the two combatants.

“I told you that she was good!” Shouted Norek.

Sergeant Vorn leapt backwards. Now armed with a sword he changed his fighting style. He stepped in and slashed, stepping out as soon as it was blocked. He kept up dipping in and out of reach before Akaisha could counter. As hard as dodging his fists was, the sword was far more difficult. Getting desperate Akaisha threw herself at Vorn, shield raised. The Sergeant couldn’t dodge fast enough, and Akaisha crashed into his chest. Vorn grunted and flipped his opponent clear over his head. As Akaisha slammed hard into the floor he stabbed her in the chest.

After the enchantment had worn off Akaisha rolled to her feet and put up her guard.

“One more round, sir?”

Vorn nodded and charged straight at Akaisha, sword pointing forwards. Akaisha threw her shield at him and raised her left hand.

“Stop! Hammer Time!”

Sergeant Vorn only froze for a fraction of a second and still thrust his sword into Akaisha’s stomach. At the same time she slammed her hammer into his head. Both of them were near-instantly frozen by the training enchantment. Vorn couldn’t stop and Jane couldn’t dodge so both went down in a crash. Vorn quickly pulled himself together and rolled off of Jane.

Most of the guards and rookies were almost silent in the aftermath. Only one was jumping up and down and shouting. Norek was pointing at the two on the floor.

“See, I told you sarge. I told you she was good! And she even got you with the same trick she used on me! This is perfect!”

Vorn remained on his back on the ground. He rolled his eyes and rumbled:

“Fine, two rounds tonight.”