Post by Guardsman Patrick on Oct 12, 2006 23:18:09 GMT -5
Chapter 12: Training in the Forest
“So how is this supposed to work again?” Rachel continued strapping on the heavy metal plates over her legs, making sure that they were properly positioned.
“Well, this is something that helped me during training with my father. It was extremely helpful. All you have to do is go into the forest, find each other and either fight or retreat. Pretty simple,” Patrick answered as he strapped down the last piece of armor to the top of his boot.
“This is the Radong forest we’re talking about though. There is all sorts of crazy stuff hidden everywhere,” Alex was putting on his wrist guards, working with only one hand awkwardly as he did it.
“Well, then you had better be quiet about killing it if you don’t want the other players in the forest to hear you.” Patrick grabbed some large metal spheres from the rack next to the extra suits of armor. “Now, how heavy is the weight training you do?” Patrick held up the different sizes, showing Alex and Rachel the numbers on each one.
“Um, I’m not really sure, I’ve never done this type of training before… Alex, let me help you with that,” Rachel stepped over to Alex and grabbed the straps for the wrist guards from his hands.
“Well, you have to consider that your armor already adds a good sixty pounds, but you are training, so these will be attached at various spots around the armor, each of them adding either ten, twenty or fifty pounds,” Patrick was already attaching the weights to his leg armor, inserting each one into a hole in the metal. Tiny sensors in the armor clamped down quickly on the metal.
“I’ll go with the twenty pound ones, and Rachel, what about you?” Alex was now done with the wrist guards, and was working on his leg armor.
“Hand me the tens, seeing as how they’re the only ones left.” Rachel drew a wet stone out of her pocket and began sharpening her sword. The ringing of the sword against the stone resonated in the silent room.
“So, how do we go into the forest? Go all at once or one at a time?” Alex watched Rachel as she continued to sharpen her sword. He wanted it to be one at a time.
“Um, one at a time sounds better than all at once, so we’ll do that,” Patrick grabbed his helmet and put his sword over his shoulder, the metal clinking as it hit.
“So, who’s heading out first?” Alex was practically begging for Patrick to go first so he and Rachel could be alone for a little bit.
Patrick looked at Alex and Rachel, then he turned towards the elevator doors, “I’ll go out first, and Alex, you follow after me in ten minutes.” Patrick walked over to the elevator and pushed the small up button. The doors slid open and Patrick stepped in, turning back toward the doors as they began to close. Alex noticed as the doors were about to close, Patrick smiled quickly at him, and then he was gone.
He knows, Alex thought to himself calmly. Better he knew anyway.
“So, thanks for helping me with the armor Rachel. I’m not that good with any kind of straps,” Alex said quietly and glanced over at her as she continued to sharpen her sword.
“Well, I hate to see you making a fool of yourself,” Rachel was still sharpening the sword. She glanced up for a moment and smiled quickly before looking back down to her work.
“So, do you think differently now?” Alex asked, not really being clear on what he meant.
“Think differently about what?” She looked at him, her eyes glistening in the bright lights of the room.
“About T3GM lasting, I remember you saying earlier something about it,” Alex stared back into her eyes.
“Well… I guess it’s worth staying and seeing how it all works out." Rachel blushed and turned away, trying to hide it.
Alex thought this was the perfect opportunity to just say something, but he simply couldn’t bring himself to do it. As he was about to say something, he remembered that he was supposed to head out after Patrick. As he turned to leave he heard Rachel behind him.
“Um, Alex…” Rachel was rubbing the top of her arm, seeming suddenly shy. She whispered quietly, “Good luck.”
“And the same goes for you.” The armor he was wearing seemed to sink down into his skin, becoming heavier with each passing second that he stared at Rachel. With one move he turned where he stood and stepped into the elevator, turning to see Rachel smiling at him.
As the doors sealed shut, Alex took a deep breath and shifted the awkward chest plate that seemed to have bad cushioning in it. Brand new and it was already wearing out. He couldn’t help but be a little scared of going into the forest that was home to some of the most vile beasts known to him and pretty much everyone else who had ever encountered one of them as well.
The elevator doors slid open as it reached the bottom floor, the large doors of the tower stood wide open where Patrick had opened them earlier. Alex took a deep breath before walking forward. As his foot hit the grass near the edge of the forest, the hair on the back of his neck stood up. He saw what stood not thirty feet away.
Where the clearing gave way to the forest stood an enormous beast that seemed to be a mix between a horse and a lizard, a royal snake as many called it, although the only thing about it that even resembled a snake was the green hue its scales had. It had twelve inch fangs sticking out of its bottom lip. Alex stayed quiet as he quickly chose another area to enter the forest. He crept along until he found an area about forty yards away from where he thought the creature still was, and entered quickly and as silently as he could.
He jumped up into a tree and began walking the treetops to begin his trek through the woods. He jumped from branch to branch quietly as he approached where the beast was supposed to be. As it came into sight again, he unsheathed his sword and crouched down where he was.
The creature didn’t seem too harmful as it walked around the area with its tongue flicking in and out. It watched a squirrel as it hopped along and pulled its long neck into its body, almost as if it was a turtle trying to hide in a shell that it didn’t have. Alex thought it was harmless and was about to walk away when he heard it move suddenly. Alex turned back to see it prowling over to the edge of the forest, its legs bending into a crouch to bring it lower.
Rachel had just walked out of the tower. The beast watched her every step, its teeth beginning to bear, almost making it look like it was smiling. Alex knew it was going to attack Rachel, and he had to do something. He felt his blade begin to grow warmer as the flames began to flow around it. As the creature continued to watch, it opened its mouth and let out a blood curdling screech, and sprang out of the forest.
It was then that Alex struck. He jumped out of the tree he was sitting in and slashed at the creatures head, and, right as he slashed, it extended its neck to make catching his prey easier. The flames of the Alex’s blade slid right through it, bone and all. As the head fell to the ground, Alex quickly glanced over to see Rachel looking back at him. He wanted to go and talk to her and wait for Patrick to come and find them, but he also wanted to enjoy the game a little before that happened. All he had time to do was smirk at her and jump back into the woods.
Alex’s feet flew as he tried to find a good spot to lay low and wait for one or the other to walk past. Finally he came to a large oak tree and climbed up between two large limbs to sit and wait for the right time.
Rachel walked through the forest lightly, trying to make no noise as she worked to find one or the other of them. She couldn’t help but feel a burst of energy, suddenly very impatient. She wanted to find one of them and make this game more interesting. As she walked from behind a tree, she gasped and moved back around the tree.
On the other side was a pack of small catlike creatures, Spifflics, roaming and they looked hungry. The strange thing about them was that they were very weak and easy targets while alone, but in a large pack, like the thirteen in the pack around the tree, they were very confident, and very hostile indeed.
Rachel stood behind the tree, breathing as quietly as possible, pulling her blade out of its sheath slowly. When she finally felt it pull all the way loose from the sheath, she turned the corner of the tree to face the vile little creatures. Ice formed all the way up her sword and she shot a large stream of ice in the packs direction. She successfully froze about nine of them, but there were still four of them that had turned and were running at her. Each of them screeched with fury. Rachel wasted no time cutting them out of the air in mid jump, slashing each of them in vital places.
As she walked past, she looked at the nine frozen in the sheet of ice. She knew the ice would melt before the creatures were dead, so she stabbed through the ice, killing them one by one. As she finished, she turned back to her purpose and continued through the forest quickly, knowing the others in the forest had most likely heard the screech’s of each of the little animals.
Patrick was sitting high in a tree that towered over the rest of the forest, giving him a full view of the forest from the spot he had chosen. He could see all the way back to the tower and all the way to the edge of the forest near the Gondra Peaks to the north, the large mountains surrounding most of the forest. He could even see the city council tower in Andorg over the trees. He listened as he heard two different animals screech, telling him that Alex and Rachel were now in the forest.
This, other than wanting to leave Alex and Rachel alone, was one of the main reasons he came out first. He knew that one of them would have heard the sounds of the four or five different animals that were in his way as well. Now he had the advantage. He was simply waiting for the bite of steel contacting steel to ring out before he headed out, either that or one of the others to stumble and make enough noise for him to easily locate them.
Patrick waited until he heard an all too familiar sound from the base of the tree. He looked down to see a Hughten, a bear that had six legs and a larger mouth for trapping and killing prey.
Man, these things are never really too bright. Patrick knew that these types of animals thought themselves to be strong enough to over power anything that they came across.
As it clamped its front claws into to tree, Patrick drew his sword. Its other two sets of claws followed behind the first and it began to climb the tree. Patrick stepped closer to the trunk of the tree, balancing lightly on the thick branch, waiting for the creature to arrive. As it drew closer, it bore its yellowish teeth at Patrick, giving it the look of a strange sort of sinister smile. Patrick could tell just how bright it was with that one action and he couldn’t help but snicker slightly as he thought about what it would look like when it realized just how unwise it was for climbing that particular tree.
When it got within twenty feet of Patrick, it let out a heavy grunt and began to breathe heavier, a tactic that many of the animals in the forest used to intimidate prey. It got within five feet of Patrick and stopped to take its front claws out of the tree trunk.
As it held on with its back four legs, it swiped at Patrick, though he was still about a foot out of range. It climbed a bit closer to strike again when Patrick slashed and cut its right shoulder. As it roared in pain, it struck with its left front paw, and Patrick quickly severed it at the joint. Finally, Patrick jumped off the branch and stabbed his sword into the skull of the fiend, making it fall backwards off the tree. It made a large thump as it hit the ground, crumpling under its own weight. Patrick hung onto the handle of his sword that he had stabbed into the tree and climbed back up on the branch, returning to the spot he had been in before. As he looked back down, he saw small animals, almost like carnivorous raccoons fighting over the dead body of the Hughten. Their high screeches easily drew in more hungry scavengers.
Well, there goes my cover, he thought to himself irritably as he listened to the growls and hisses of the fighting scavengers at the base of the tree.
Alex listened at the sound of tiny scavengers in the distance fighting. What they fought over he didn’t know, but that wasn’t important to him right now. He jumped out of his tree and walked under the canopy of large trees that seemed to get bigger as he went. The armor was settling back down into his shoulders again, making it feel like the plates were cutting into him. After five minutes of this, he finally pulled some moss off the ground and stuck it under the plate, giving it some extra cushioning. It would only be a matter of time before the plates began to push the moss into his shoulders as well.
He crept through the forest a little more, making sure not to run into any more animals. He could easily kill anything in the forest, big or small, but it was not getting rid of them that was the problem. It was how loud killing them was. He knew either Patrick or Rachel had had run-ins with some animals as well, because he had heard many different animals screech and roar, something they don’t usually do while hunting.
As Alex rounded a corner, he stood still. He could see Rachel walking along through the forest in front of him. Just what I needed Alex crept up behind her, trying to be quick, but silent at the same time. As he got within two yards of her, she spun around and slashed at Alex’s side.
“Whoa,” Alex jumped back just barely being missed. He hardly had time to react to the next attack that came flying at his shoulder. He moved his sword between him and the armor, grappling with Rachel. She gritted her teeth as she pushed against his blade. Alex was surprised by Rachel’s strength, but she was still not quite as strong as he was. He pushed her blade back with much difficulty, until she ended the grapple and spun quickly; striking about four times before Alex could even guard the first attack. He then realized why Patrick found this type of sparring so helpful.
Rachel’s armor was lighter, so it was easier for her to attack and made her faster. Alex on the other hand was slowed, but gravity was on his side if he decided to attack from above. Alex couldn’t think about this long though, because Rachel was once again attacking from every direction. Alex took the armor’s advantage and brought his sword down hard, aiming at Rachel’s shoulder. Rachel didn’t hesitate at all to block it and strike again.
No wonder she beat that guy under the dock so easily, Alex was glad he had chosen Rachel as the third gym master; as she would make a tremendous difference in any sort of fight.
Alex rolled as Rachel brought her ice covered sword down. Alex then got up and swung at Rachel’s side. Her blade met his before it hit and she struck at him again.
“I guess this armor really helps,” Alex could feel his arms beginning to get soar, meaning that he was growing stronger, but not helping the fact that he was in the middle of a fight.
“I guess so,” Rachel responded between strikes, the ice melting where the Alex’s flames touched it, and reforming when the contact ended.
Alex was just about to strike at Rachel again when Patrick jumped from a tree nearby and ran straight toward him, sword drawn and ready to strike.
This was now a three-way fight. Steel was swinging in every direction and blades were barely blocked. Alex didn’t know how he was blocking half of the strikes he did. Instinct helped him counteract many of them. In this fight, there was no time to think, talk or even breathe.
“Alright,” Patrick said through coarse breaths, “I believe that may be just about enough training for one day." He sheathed his sword and began to walk away, leaving Rachel and Alex both behind, looking at each other like they didn’t know what had just happened.
“But we had just started!” Rachel caught up to Patrick, leaving Alex still standing there between the trees.
“No, it’s been about an hour now and it’s beginning to get dark,” Patrick said, drawing his sword again to hack away at the branches and bushes that were in his way.
“Yeah, but why did we have to stop?” Alex asked as he caught up.
“Because one, I’m hungry… which is the main reason. Also the fact that the Radong forest is no place to be at night and there is also the fact that this armor makes training faster, so less is better, not more.” Patrick continued to hack away at everything, making a lot of noise along the way. The smell of tree sap was tagging along behind them where the trees had been cut.
They arrived back at the tower within the minutes, walking up just as the large lights on the top flooded the clearing with light. Patrick walked over to the hand scanner at the front of the tower and placed his hand on it. After a second of scanning, the pad turned green and the large tower doors swung slowly open.
“So, what shall I make for dinner?” Patrick asked as they entered the tower.
“So how is this supposed to work again?” Rachel continued strapping on the heavy metal plates over her legs, making sure that they were properly positioned.
“Well, this is something that helped me during training with my father. It was extremely helpful. All you have to do is go into the forest, find each other and either fight or retreat. Pretty simple,” Patrick answered as he strapped down the last piece of armor to the top of his boot.
“This is the Radong forest we’re talking about though. There is all sorts of crazy stuff hidden everywhere,” Alex was putting on his wrist guards, working with only one hand awkwardly as he did it.
“Well, then you had better be quiet about killing it if you don’t want the other players in the forest to hear you.” Patrick grabbed some large metal spheres from the rack next to the extra suits of armor. “Now, how heavy is the weight training you do?” Patrick held up the different sizes, showing Alex and Rachel the numbers on each one.
“Um, I’m not really sure, I’ve never done this type of training before… Alex, let me help you with that,” Rachel stepped over to Alex and grabbed the straps for the wrist guards from his hands.
“Well, you have to consider that your armor already adds a good sixty pounds, but you are training, so these will be attached at various spots around the armor, each of them adding either ten, twenty or fifty pounds,” Patrick was already attaching the weights to his leg armor, inserting each one into a hole in the metal. Tiny sensors in the armor clamped down quickly on the metal.
“I’ll go with the twenty pound ones, and Rachel, what about you?” Alex was now done with the wrist guards, and was working on his leg armor.
“Hand me the tens, seeing as how they’re the only ones left.” Rachel drew a wet stone out of her pocket and began sharpening her sword. The ringing of the sword against the stone resonated in the silent room.
“So, how do we go into the forest? Go all at once or one at a time?” Alex watched Rachel as she continued to sharpen her sword. He wanted it to be one at a time.
“Um, one at a time sounds better than all at once, so we’ll do that,” Patrick grabbed his helmet and put his sword over his shoulder, the metal clinking as it hit.
“So, who’s heading out first?” Alex was practically begging for Patrick to go first so he and Rachel could be alone for a little bit.
Patrick looked at Alex and Rachel, then he turned towards the elevator doors, “I’ll go out first, and Alex, you follow after me in ten minutes.” Patrick walked over to the elevator and pushed the small up button. The doors slid open and Patrick stepped in, turning back toward the doors as they began to close. Alex noticed as the doors were about to close, Patrick smiled quickly at him, and then he was gone.
He knows, Alex thought to himself calmly. Better he knew anyway.
“So, thanks for helping me with the armor Rachel. I’m not that good with any kind of straps,” Alex said quietly and glanced over at her as she continued to sharpen her sword.
“Well, I hate to see you making a fool of yourself,” Rachel was still sharpening the sword. She glanced up for a moment and smiled quickly before looking back down to her work.
“So, do you think differently now?” Alex asked, not really being clear on what he meant.
“Think differently about what?” She looked at him, her eyes glistening in the bright lights of the room.
“About T3GM lasting, I remember you saying earlier something about it,” Alex stared back into her eyes.
“Well… I guess it’s worth staying and seeing how it all works out." Rachel blushed and turned away, trying to hide it.
Alex thought this was the perfect opportunity to just say something, but he simply couldn’t bring himself to do it. As he was about to say something, he remembered that he was supposed to head out after Patrick. As he turned to leave he heard Rachel behind him.
“Um, Alex…” Rachel was rubbing the top of her arm, seeming suddenly shy. She whispered quietly, “Good luck.”
“And the same goes for you.” The armor he was wearing seemed to sink down into his skin, becoming heavier with each passing second that he stared at Rachel. With one move he turned where he stood and stepped into the elevator, turning to see Rachel smiling at him.
As the doors sealed shut, Alex took a deep breath and shifted the awkward chest plate that seemed to have bad cushioning in it. Brand new and it was already wearing out. He couldn’t help but be a little scared of going into the forest that was home to some of the most vile beasts known to him and pretty much everyone else who had ever encountered one of them as well.
The elevator doors slid open as it reached the bottom floor, the large doors of the tower stood wide open where Patrick had opened them earlier. Alex took a deep breath before walking forward. As his foot hit the grass near the edge of the forest, the hair on the back of his neck stood up. He saw what stood not thirty feet away.
Where the clearing gave way to the forest stood an enormous beast that seemed to be a mix between a horse and a lizard, a royal snake as many called it, although the only thing about it that even resembled a snake was the green hue its scales had. It had twelve inch fangs sticking out of its bottom lip. Alex stayed quiet as he quickly chose another area to enter the forest. He crept along until he found an area about forty yards away from where he thought the creature still was, and entered quickly and as silently as he could.
He jumped up into a tree and began walking the treetops to begin his trek through the woods. He jumped from branch to branch quietly as he approached where the beast was supposed to be. As it came into sight again, he unsheathed his sword and crouched down where he was.
The creature didn’t seem too harmful as it walked around the area with its tongue flicking in and out. It watched a squirrel as it hopped along and pulled its long neck into its body, almost as if it was a turtle trying to hide in a shell that it didn’t have. Alex thought it was harmless and was about to walk away when he heard it move suddenly. Alex turned back to see it prowling over to the edge of the forest, its legs bending into a crouch to bring it lower.
Rachel had just walked out of the tower. The beast watched her every step, its teeth beginning to bear, almost making it look like it was smiling. Alex knew it was going to attack Rachel, and he had to do something. He felt his blade begin to grow warmer as the flames began to flow around it. As the creature continued to watch, it opened its mouth and let out a blood curdling screech, and sprang out of the forest.
It was then that Alex struck. He jumped out of the tree he was sitting in and slashed at the creatures head, and, right as he slashed, it extended its neck to make catching his prey easier. The flames of the Alex’s blade slid right through it, bone and all. As the head fell to the ground, Alex quickly glanced over to see Rachel looking back at him. He wanted to go and talk to her and wait for Patrick to come and find them, but he also wanted to enjoy the game a little before that happened. All he had time to do was smirk at her and jump back into the woods.
Alex’s feet flew as he tried to find a good spot to lay low and wait for one or the other to walk past. Finally he came to a large oak tree and climbed up between two large limbs to sit and wait for the right time.
* * *
Rachel walked through the forest lightly, trying to make no noise as she worked to find one or the other of them. She couldn’t help but feel a burst of energy, suddenly very impatient. She wanted to find one of them and make this game more interesting. As she walked from behind a tree, she gasped and moved back around the tree.
On the other side was a pack of small catlike creatures, Spifflics, roaming and they looked hungry. The strange thing about them was that they were very weak and easy targets while alone, but in a large pack, like the thirteen in the pack around the tree, they were very confident, and very hostile indeed.
Rachel stood behind the tree, breathing as quietly as possible, pulling her blade out of its sheath slowly. When she finally felt it pull all the way loose from the sheath, she turned the corner of the tree to face the vile little creatures. Ice formed all the way up her sword and she shot a large stream of ice in the packs direction. She successfully froze about nine of them, but there were still four of them that had turned and were running at her. Each of them screeched with fury. Rachel wasted no time cutting them out of the air in mid jump, slashing each of them in vital places.
As she walked past, she looked at the nine frozen in the sheet of ice. She knew the ice would melt before the creatures were dead, so she stabbed through the ice, killing them one by one. As she finished, she turned back to her purpose and continued through the forest quickly, knowing the others in the forest had most likely heard the screech’s of each of the little animals.
* * *
Patrick was sitting high in a tree that towered over the rest of the forest, giving him a full view of the forest from the spot he had chosen. He could see all the way back to the tower and all the way to the edge of the forest near the Gondra Peaks to the north, the large mountains surrounding most of the forest. He could even see the city council tower in Andorg over the trees. He listened as he heard two different animals screech, telling him that Alex and Rachel were now in the forest.
This, other than wanting to leave Alex and Rachel alone, was one of the main reasons he came out first. He knew that one of them would have heard the sounds of the four or five different animals that were in his way as well. Now he had the advantage. He was simply waiting for the bite of steel contacting steel to ring out before he headed out, either that or one of the others to stumble and make enough noise for him to easily locate them.
Patrick waited until he heard an all too familiar sound from the base of the tree. He looked down to see a Hughten, a bear that had six legs and a larger mouth for trapping and killing prey.
Man, these things are never really too bright. Patrick knew that these types of animals thought themselves to be strong enough to over power anything that they came across.
As it clamped its front claws into to tree, Patrick drew his sword. Its other two sets of claws followed behind the first and it began to climb the tree. Patrick stepped closer to the trunk of the tree, balancing lightly on the thick branch, waiting for the creature to arrive. As it drew closer, it bore its yellowish teeth at Patrick, giving it the look of a strange sort of sinister smile. Patrick could tell just how bright it was with that one action and he couldn’t help but snicker slightly as he thought about what it would look like when it realized just how unwise it was for climbing that particular tree.
When it got within twenty feet of Patrick, it let out a heavy grunt and began to breathe heavier, a tactic that many of the animals in the forest used to intimidate prey. It got within five feet of Patrick and stopped to take its front claws out of the tree trunk.
As it held on with its back four legs, it swiped at Patrick, though he was still about a foot out of range. It climbed a bit closer to strike again when Patrick slashed and cut its right shoulder. As it roared in pain, it struck with its left front paw, and Patrick quickly severed it at the joint. Finally, Patrick jumped off the branch and stabbed his sword into the skull of the fiend, making it fall backwards off the tree. It made a large thump as it hit the ground, crumpling under its own weight. Patrick hung onto the handle of his sword that he had stabbed into the tree and climbed back up on the branch, returning to the spot he had been in before. As he looked back down, he saw small animals, almost like carnivorous raccoons fighting over the dead body of the Hughten. Their high screeches easily drew in more hungry scavengers.
Well, there goes my cover, he thought to himself irritably as he listened to the growls and hisses of the fighting scavengers at the base of the tree.
* * *
Alex listened at the sound of tiny scavengers in the distance fighting. What they fought over he didn’t know, but that wasn’t important to him right now. He jumped out of his tree and walked under the canopy of large trees that seemed to get bigger as he went. The armor was settling back down into his shoulders again, making it feel like the plates were cutting into him. After five minutes of this, he finally pulled some moss off the ground and stuck it under the plate, giving it some extra cushioning. It would only be a matter of time before the plates began to push the moss into his shoulders as well.
He crept through the forest a little more, making sure not to run into any more animals. He could easily kill anything in the forest, big or small, but it was not getting rid of them that was the problem. It was how loud killing them was. He knew either Patrick or Rachel had had run-ins with some animals as well, because he had heard many different animals screech and roar, something they don’t usually do while hunting.
As Alex rounded a corner, he stood still. He could see Rachel walking along through the forest in front of him. Just what I needed Alex crept up behind her, trying to be quick, but silent at the same time. As he got within two yards of her, she spun around and slashed at Alex’s side.
“Whoa,” Alex jumped back just barely being missed. He hardly had time to react to the next attack that came flying at his shoulder. He moved his sword between him and the armor, grappling with Rachel. She gritted her teeth as she pushed against his blade. Alex was surprised by Rachel’s strength, but she was still not quite as strong as he was. He pushed her blade back with much difficulty, until she ended the grapple and spun quickly; striking about four times before Alex could even guard the first attack. He then realized why Patrick found this type of sparring so helpful.
Rachel’s armor was lighter, so it was easier for her to attack and made her faster. Alex on the other hand was slowed, but gravity was on his side if he decided to attack from above. Alex couldn’t think about this long though, because Rachel was once again attacking from every direction. Alex took the armor’s advantage and brought his sword down hard, aiming at Rachel’s shoulder. Rachel didn’t hesitate at all to block it and strike again.
No wonder she beat that guy under the dock so easily, Alex was glad he had chosen Rachel as the third gym master; as she would make a tremendous difference in any sort of fight.
Alex rolled as Rachel brought her ice covered sword down. Alex then got up and swung at Rachel’s side. Her blade met his before it hit and she struck at him again.
“I guess this armor really helps,” Alex could feel his arms beginning to get soar, meaning that he was growing stronger, but not helping the fact that he was in the middle of a fight.
“I guess so,” Rachel responded between strikes, the ice melting where the Alex’s flames touched it, and reforming when the contact ended.
Alex was just about to strike at Rachel again when Patrick jumped from a tree nearby and ran straight toward him, sword drawn and ready to strike.
This was now a three-way fight. Steel was swinging in every direction and blades were barely blocked. Alex didn’t know how he was blocking half of the strikes he did. Instinct helped him counteract many of them. In this fight, there was no time to think, talk or even breathe.
“Alright,” Patrick said through coarse breaths, “I believe that may be just about enough training for one day." He sheathed his sword and began to walk away, leaving Rachel and Alex both behind, looking at each other like they didn’t know what had just happened.
“But we had just started!” Rachel caught up to Patrick, leaving Alex still standing there between the trees.
“No, it’s been about an hour now and it’s beginning to get dark,” Patrick said, drawing his sword again to hack away at the branches and bushes that were in his way.
“Yeah, but why did we have to stop?” Alex asked as he caught up.
“Because one, I’m hungry… which is the main reason. Also the fact that the Radong forest is no place to be at night and there is also the fact that this armor makes training faster, so less is better, not more.” Patrick continued to hack away at everything, making a lot of noise along the way. The smell of tree sap was tagging along behind them where the trees had been cut.
They arrived back at the tower within the minutes, walking up just as the large lights on the top flooded the clearing with light. Patrick walked over to the hand scanner at the front of the tower and placed his hand on it. After a second of scanning, the pad turned green and the large tower doors swung slowly open.
“So, what shall I make for dinner?” Patrick asked as they entered the tower.