Chapter 61

Maston Academy

The Town of Maston in the Candis East District

Maston academy did not stop classes when Terris was killed. Myles found it somewhat callous. Even Kate who had been badly shaken up the night before was made to attend class.

“We have combat training to prevent deaths.” Primrose swung around, eying each of the dormmates with fervor in her eyes. “When you graduate, you will be expected to be able to fight monsters like that. It is what you are being trained for.”

Myles hadn’t seen Reah since the night before. She wasn’t here now. He supposed that might be for the best. They already knew that the organization was after her. After Terris, they probably wanted to keep her in a more secure area.

“Today we’ll start by introducing the next four steps in the core arcaner’s way of the fist. Myles, care to join me?”

Myles moved into the sandpit that Primrose was standing in, quickly throwing off his worries. He would need to be focused.

“Ready yourself.”

Myles nodded, taking a natural stance. Primrose started out with a palm thrust then moved into a leg sweep. Myles dodged both without too much difficulty. Primrose had executed those same much faster before. Myles dodged a few more moves, each of them seeming to be slower than usual.

Myles realized he was being baited into attacking. Normally, he would be hesitant to do so, but this was a demonstration. After dodging the next sequence, Myles launched a palm strike of his own. This was clearly what primrose was waiting for. She stepped into his guard, pushing his arm to the side in a flurry of movement. In the next moment, a palm thrust slammed into him.

“Counters like that are popular in martial arts. They allow you to quickly turn the tables and gain an advantage in battle.” Primrose shook her head. “This kind of counter has no place in the core arcaner’s way of the fist though. Does anyone know why?”

There was some general shaking of heads.

“The core arcaner’s way of the fist is a set of steps that each serve a purpose in a variety of situations. How do you suppose that same move would work against a monster.”

“Not well.” Myles supplied.

“Usually not.” Primrose agreed. “It may have some utility against certain monsters, but as a rule, it will not work. Instead, we have a different step that takes care of that. Myles come at me again.”

Myles approached quickly, delivering another palm thrust, nearly identical to his first. This time, Primrose reacted differently. She still moved forward, but this time, Myles’ arm wasn’t pushed aside by her arm. Instead, she purposely went to ground, doing a half roll under his guard then throwing herself up, bringing her leg around his neck pulling herself back up while throwing him to the ground.

Even from the ground, Myles found himself in awe. The move was a fabulous showcase of athleticism, timing, and technique.

“That is what we call the twister counter. It is the ninth step of the core arcaner’s way of the fist.”

Myles felt his draw drop. He had no illusions of thinking he could pull that off. One look from Primrose though and Myles knew how serious she was. They would learn to pull it off. They would keep practicing until they could do it.

“As you saw, counters are very effective, oftentimes allowing one to finish off their opponent instantly if they can predict their movement.” Primrose paused. “For students like you who are very predictable, that is an unacceptable weakness.”

Primrose gestured Myles forward again. It was beginning to get a little old. He was starting to feel like a punching bag.

“I don’t expect you to be able to pull the twister counter off right away, so you can just rely on the basic counter.”

Myles wasn’t sure he would be able to even pull off the standard counter on his first attempt, but he wasn’t about to throw one of his friends into the fire. Kate and Seth were probably the ones most likely to succeed, but they had enough on their mind. Myles squared himself up, ready to execute.

Primrose came at him, leading with a palm thrust. Myles stepped in, sweeping his right arm out to push hers away, then attacking with a palm thrust from his left. He was so close; he was almost certain his attack would land. It did not.

Primrose evoked a tiny amount of pure mana, a small enough amount that Myles would have easily broken through if he had hit it head on. As it was though, the slip of mana was angled such that his elbow ran against it and was guided to the right, barely missing Primrose. In the same movement, she pivoted around him, delivering an elbow to the back of his head.

Myles’ commuted armor absorbed the blow, but the point was made.

“The tenth step.” Primrose announced. “The slip cutter.”

Myles considered the movement. On first look, it seemed easier to pull off when compared to the twister counter. That was perhaps deceptive though. After all, the mana that would be evoked would need to be placed in an instant. A different attack would mean a different placement of the evoked mana.

“The eleventh step is similar to the tenth. The difference is in the usage. The tenth step is a defensive technique that requires close proximity. The eleventh step is for use against multiple opponents. Silas come up here, please.”

Silas joined Myles in the sandpit. They exchanged a nervous look. Primrose had never sparred with more than one of them at a time.

“Come at me.”

The spar took a little longer this time. Myles was used to fighting alongside Silas, so they immediately moved, flanking her. Every time she tried to press the attack, the one being attacked would drop off, letting the other threaten from behind.

Primrose gave a commentary. “This is good. Attacking from multiple directions at once is the most common and often most troublesome tactic you’ll encounter when facing multiple opponents, be they man or monster. Its also exactly the situation the eleventh step is intended to counter.”

Primrose again charged at Silas. Myles chased her back. Even if she managed to take Silas out in a single strike, Myles would get a free attack in before she could turn around.

Primrose didn’t take down Silas right away though. Instead, she twisted to the side, pulling her ankle around Silas’ and swinging himself around to his back. The move would have been physically impossible, but Primrose supported her body, keeping it from falling with a small amount of evoked pure mana. In the end, Primrose had fully pivoted around Silas, driving an elbow into him much as she had against Myles. The difference this time was that Myles was there.

Myles tried to get to Primrose before she could recover, but it proved to be impossible. Silas was standing between Myles and Primrose.

There was no real explanation needed. They all saw how the step worked. It was an effective way to get out of a bad situation.

“The twelfth step is perhaps the most effective way to take down an opponent provided a few conditions are met.”

Myles felt a little relief when she had Silas join her for the last demonstration. He was less than keen to continue getting beat up. Primrose had been pulling her punches, so its not like it had physically hurt, but it certainly hadn’t helped Myles’ self-esteem.

Primrose made the first move, delivering palm thrusts, leg sweeps and even a falling javelin. Silas held his own, keeping his guard up and relying on snake steps where needed. Then it ended. Primrose delivered a swift and brutal kick to the head. If Silas hadn’t been commuting pure mana, he would have been knocked out.

“When your opponent is conditioned to think you’re going to attack them low, they’ll lower their guard. When they do that, a blow to the head can end a fight in an instant. Of course, if you’re fighting an arcaner you’ll need to combine the kick with some kind of evoked mana to break apart their pure mana.”

After the demonstration, Primrose split them into pairs to practice the twister counter and slip cutter steps. It was slow going and Primrose was forced to reset them almost continuously, describing where they were going wrong and showing them how to correct their mistakes.

Myles found the twister counter to be at least as difficult as it looked. Even only practicing against one attack, Myles had a hard time getting the timing right. Primrose explained how they could alter the pattern of their commuted armor to increase or decrease the speed of their roll on the fly. Pure mana had the quality of creating less contact with the ground, allowing one to roll faster. On the reverse side, by adding gaps in the commuted armor, it was possible to slow down the roll.

On the rare occasions when they were able to execute the twister counter with some degree of success, the partner wasn’t able to react in time to perform a counter to that, finding themselves unexpectedly laid out.

Halfway through combat training, they switched gears to working on the eleventh and twelfth steps. It was here that they had some level of competence, their previous skills and combat experience coming into use here. The use of pure mana as support was similar in many ways to how they used it while snake stepping. Their attempts were still clumsy, but it was a far better start than they had with the other two steps.

The twelfth step was the simplest in execution, yet it was here that Primrose was harshest, calling out even the slightest of mistakes. Eventually, Myles supposed that they would reach this same stage with other steps, but he had a hard time imagining their skill growing enough for Primrose to not chastise them.

By the time the end of combat training was called, the group found themselves on their hands and knees, breathing heavily. Every single one of the steps they had been practicing were physically intensive. The twister counter in particular had made Myles’ shoulders burn after the first few attempts. They certainly had their work cut out for them.

There was a quietness to the group during the break that Myles had rarely seen. The reason why was easy to figure out. The group was far from over the events of the night before. Even Myles had to willfully push it out of his head. The trouble for him was that he had no idea what motive the enforcer could have had for killing a simple student. Terris wasn’t a noble or otherwise from an influential family of any sort. Him and his brother were or had actually been a part of the same curriculum as Myles’ dormmates.

Myles kept his eye on Kate in particular. The way she had reacted was beyond scary. She had been completely out of it. Even now, there was a deadness to her eyes and Myles didn’t think she had spoken to anyone that morning.

The quiet, contemplative atmosphere made Myles appreciate the hard pace of their morning session. While they had been training, Myles had partnered with Kate. She had been focused and alive throughout the session.

All in all, the group was still in shock from the incident, but they were pushing through it.