Thud Thud FuuFuuFuu It’s been one week since I started training, there has been no progress and I haven’t opened my Qi core yet. So I stand here eyeing up Anita who was chosen to be my sparing partner since shes only eight, but still. “ This isn’t fair your much bigger than me!” I know I’m spitting my dummy out but you can’t blame me this devil spawn has been toying with me for the past week it’s not even training for her at this point, what can I do with this stumpy body, I knew it was too early for training. “hohohohoho It seems the little genius isn’t a match for me at all” And so for the past week I’ve been subjected to this harrassment, but it has served as decent motivation as getting a good hit in would do me a world of good, so I leep forward with my wooden sword extended out for a stab. Since Anita is using wooden daggers my play is too keep some distence between us while trying to get a hit in but I can only watch as she sidesteps my stab and rushes in which leads to the usual defence from me which leads to the inevitable lose. I bring my blade back while stepping away from her trying to keep the blade at her at all times she simply hits the tip of my sword with her dagger then slides the dagger down the sword to the hilt trying to keep the blade away, while going for a stab with the other blade. I step back and bring my blade in the path of her dagger aiming to black it but this seems to be within her plan as before I was able to plant myself again she pushed the sword with both her blades and with no support I start to lose my footing and eventually crumble under the pressure. argh “hehehe and so I have toppled the genius again I really deserve more praise.” It really makes me wonder whether or not they trained her and me the same way, because if so does she not feel any shame beating her little brother like so. “Joseph where are your praises for your big sister?” Oh god, she is trying to act like Father, shes even being kind yet stern, what has happened to her. As I look at the little devil spawn the big devil spawn comes over. “Now Sister do you need me to remind you what happened when you first started training?” And now Noah starts I know Fathers cool but do you both have to imitate him so much, as the fakes we’re bickering the real Father came over. “What are you doing, come and line up.” Under Fathers instruction we line up and begin practicing with our attendants or teachers for whatever weapon we’re using. As I look at Raphael and study him for and sign of QI he stops and drops his weapon slowly. “Joseph you can not force your Qi core into opening it is a natural occurance, when your body needs strength beyond what it has thats when your core will be opened, this is why its better to start young but know this the average time to open even with trainging every day is still 3 months so relax and let it come naturally, okay” Huuuuu haaaaa “Okay” Raphael is right, how can I force something I have no real control over all I can do is train to the max and let it come naturally, anyway I was told the sooner I open the core the sooner I’ll be able to relax. I decide to just rush him and go for a wide slash aiming for the tip of his sword, just as it was about to hit it was drawn back just enough for me to miss and then quickly thrust forward aiming for my sturnum, I go to jump back and collect my self again but I’ve underestimated the reach of the old goat. thud “ It seems you think everyone you’ll fight is a carbon copy of you, it’s best to ingrain this into you while your still small, that is the feeling of fighting somebody much bigger than you?” “Will that really be that important if I grow to the same size as Father I’ll be one of the tallest people in the city?” “sigh do you really think that humans are the tallest of races putting aside monsters which can grow as big as buildings the Giant race makes your father look like a child in comparison.” Well I seem to keep forgetting where I am, am I still clinging onto the common sence of my old world, I’ve seen a dwarf a race much smaller than humans was I really so narrow minded to ignore the possibility of much taller races. “Well it looks like you’ve thought enough time to continue with todays lesson, dealing with an opponant with a much longer reach.” It’s going to be a long day isn’t it. Well it still doesn’t hurt as much as when I started training but that wasn’t fun. I was thrown around between the big and little devils and after that passed onto the old goat to be lectured in everything I’ve done wrong. I’m sitting at the side of the training ground with my siblings eating lunch, its times like these where we actually get along as they don’t speak but thats beside the point as what they spoke about before actually intereted me. “What do you mean we can go into the forest?” Noah almost looks smug as he goes to answer my quetion, “Well we’re allowed 3 hours break as we’ve opened our core and once a week we go into the forest to explore.” “oh Does that mean I can’t come?” “No silly Father said while you don’t get the breaks everyday we’re allowed to bring you when we go into the forest, and that day is today, so you coming?” The look on his face was almost mischevious which makes me worried as to what will happen but I can’t resist my first outing out of the city. “Okay, I’ll go get Raphael” “No need for that he’ll catch up soon enough” “But-” “Lets go Joseph or what can the little genius not go anywhere without his attendent” And so, victim to my siblings taunts I follow them without Raphael. For my first outing it doesn’t seem much different from any old forest in my old world the scent of the woods was the same at least, and as for the wildlife there hasn’t been anything apart from the usual bugs. “Brother do you know where our guards are?” Anita seems to be quite worried for once, I sight that I was enjoying, but I had to agree with her point I couldn’t see them, but Noah still seemed quite relaxed as he turned around and showed us a necklace. “Sister you know what this is don’t you, as long as I have it Father will know where we are, I imagine that our guard is keeping back to let us get some experiance.” This seems to ease Anita up a little but I know one outlet for her stress and as she turns to face me her usual teasing smile is one replaced with extreme focus. “MOVE” Almost on instinct I dive to the left and turn back to see a little rabbit leaping towards my sister, sigh, she really scared me was there any need to react like that over a lit- WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON. I watch in shock as I notice a horn on the rabbits head knock away one of my sisters blades and as the rabbit falls my brother is quick to action pouncing on the rabbit faster than I thought his little body could move and slice the head off the rabbit. I can only stare at the horn on the rabbit in confusion, why does a rabbit have a horn hard enough to knock away iron on its head and why was it so aggresive. “Must have entered the little guys territory huh well I must say that was a perfect cut.” As Noah was inspecting his kill Anita made her way over to me. “Joseph are you okay.” I actually look at her and see she has crouched down infront of me, my first time seeing violence since I’ve came here and this is how I react, you wouldn’t think I had been a soldier previously. Here I was getting consoled by a child, what has happened to me. “hehehe I’m fine just a bit shocked” “Okay we can go back if you want?” Whats happened to my sister, does she have two personailities, who is this angel that invaded her body, can she stay? “What are you on about we’ve only just completed a hunt we can’t go back now I’m only just starting.” “Shut up Brother not everybody’s Rank E like you, some of us need to rest after that, anyway I think we’ve been here enough for today.” With brother finally shutting up and getting ready to head back i move to the rabbit to get a better look, it was big for a rabbit but i guess I’m still comparing them to the rabbits I know from earth. Its claws were quite sharp and might be able to dig into the training gear we we’re currently wearing the coat was a silky white and it was about as big as a pitbull from earth so it was huge for a rabbit but they we’re treating it normally so I guess its average. When I look at the horn its about the same size as the dagger that I was shown by Dastreal coming at about 6 inches long. “Are all rabbits this aggressive or was this one different?” “This isn’t a rabbit its a horned rabbit you can tell from the horn.” “I could have guessed that I’m asking if they’re common” “hehehe No they’re not that common this close to the city and usually they’re quite docile I wonder whats changed?” I don’t like the sound of that usually when animals act up there’s a couple reasons and one of them is- howl After the howl I didn’t even need to listen to Noah telling me to run but my stumpy little legs won’t take me that far and soon I found my self being lightly pushed by Noah as he tries to run with me in check. Unable to resist I turn around to see whats chasing us, what I see can olny be describe as a worthog type creature, but if a worthog had been bred to be the size of a horse, with horns that point more forward compared to what I remember they seem quite similar to Elephant tusks. While looking like a worthog I noticed that it was covered in fur with what seemed to be a white mane around the head standing out against the dark grey fur that coated the beast. “HOW STRONG IS THAT THING?” “DO YOU THINK A WHITEHOG HOWL’S LIKE THAT” Ah of corse I didn’t even think it wasn’t a preditor, looking back again I see another 3 Whitehog’s closing in on us but can’t see anything else yet. I see that the Whitehog’s will catch up with us soon and begin to feel a little bit of dispair creeping up on me, is this how my second life will end trampled by a beast, I feel my body is slowly reaching its limites and my siblings aren’t fairing much better. I look infront of me to try and block out these thoughts and something catches my eye to the left, I look and see a glimpse of white pass by as I feel a pull on my shirt. “DOWN”. Noahs voice deafens my ears and all I see is the sky and the trees stumbeling to get on my feet I see that the White beast has pounced just infront of me and brother is staring it down. Its only now that I notice the green man resting on the back of the beast holding a makeshift spear staring down at his prey. Its now that I get a better look at the beast its about as big as a lion from earth but with more of a hunched back with only its face not covered in fur instead revealing its pale skin and rough long face, mouth lined with teeth only a carnivour could have, primed to strike. The little green man on the back was about the same size as my brother but from ontop of the beast he was as tall as Father, with dark green skin and little to no clothes you would think hes just crawled out of the slums, its face was hidious and eyes had only hate, clearly there was no room for negotiation. Brother seemed to know this too as he is first to move forward aiming for the eye of the white beast, skillfully dodging the beast moves to the side aiming to attack brother from the side, as I look to my sister I see the Whitehogs have caught up and 5 more of them little green men are fighting them, and 2 are making their way toward us. “Stay back Joseph” My sister leaves me in stunned silence as she makes her way towards the them daggers drawn, the 2 she was up against both had rusty swords, calling them swords is a compliment as they we’re really just clumps of metal with a sumwhat sharp edge. The walk turns into a dash as my sister aims for the one on the left with a slash to the inner thigh aiming to incapacitate him. A quick response from the other leads to my sister having to quickly back off, then a battle ensues of my sister trying to get the safest possible cuts on her opponents and them aiming for a counter at any oppertunity. Eventually the battle shifts as one of the Whitehog’s falls and leading to a three on one for my sister turning to my brother I see that while he still has his sword hes looking worse for ware and his weak training armour has done him no good. He goes in for another slash with his sword cathing the beast on its front paw causing it to yelp and retreat in pain knocking off the little green man on its back. Just as it landed the white beast bounced around my brother heading straight for me, stumbling to my feet I struggle to think of what to do, I only have a small dagger as I havn’t been to Dastreal to collect my order yet. Time seems to slow as I think, where to stab, do I just dodge. As I’m frozen I see the claws of the beast make their way towards me slowly, and just as their about to land on my left arm I notice Noah. Hes currently Running his blade through the beast with his right hand while his lift is jammed into the beasts eyes. howl As the beast howls in pain out of reflex it pulls its head to the side and manages to bite onto Noah’s hand while it’s claw still managed to catch me, causing a rip in my training gear while blood starts to leak out of the fresh wound. With my right arm fine I swing at the beast aiming for it’s one working eye, While doing so I feel much faster than before and time seems to speed back up as the blade enters it’s eye and the beast slowly slumps down releasing my brothers hand from its mouth. Before we’re able to relax I see that my sister has backed up and is covered in small cuts but still somehow looks much better than us. “Well you two have seen better days” “Who would have thought a goblin scouting party would be out in these woods, our day has been really unlucky.” We move so that our backs are covered by the white beast and with my sister to my left and my brother to my right I feel much better about our odds, thats until I see that there is still about 5 of these goblins still up and making their way over with what I can assume is their leader the one with the spear who somehow looks even angrier. I go to stand up but brother motions for me to stay down, “Its fine Joseph I really thought they’d be quicker than this” after saying so he falls down onto one knee panting using his blade to keep upright and my sister seems to fall right after leaving the goblins and me standing round confused. Shing I’m forced to cover my eyes as a bright light envelops us all once the light dissapears all I see is body parts as the goblins are in pieces all over the floor and I see Rafael standing there one second and the next he’s in front of us looking down at me. “I don’t know whether I should scold you for leaving without your guard or congratulate you for holding out against these goblins and awakening the young masters QI core, but I guess thats for the lord to decide.” As I see more guards come into view I feel my strength leaving me as I fall into a deep sleep.