Friedrick followed John wanting to see this Friedrick lasted 40 minutes straight. Having not told John about this he wanted to see how John does. Knowing that John could not comprehend or stand people kicking in a fair fight as he expected everyone to follow. In John’s mind fair fights be it bare knuckle or sword fighting was all the same rules are meant to be followed no kicking, no biting, and no punching the family jewels. However having fought Master already he knew that all of that was fair game even if Master never took a bite he could tell Master would if it was life or death. So Friedrick followed the Young Master like any boy would knowing what was about to happen with delight. 

John couldn’t wait for the chance to train with someone new. Friedrick has always been a challenge but was entirely a different style than himself which was not a bad thing. Friedrick’s style complimented his style completely, however it is difficult to become a walking fort when your training partner was entirely light and fast. John knew that it was normal till he got the strength to handle his sword style. John was dead set on being able to wield the biggest and heaviest two handed sword as though it was a single handed sword.

John running comes back around the house from picking up his equipment. Still smiling John runs up to the boulder with the man sitting on it. The mornings catch still sitting beside the stone. John overly excited decided to just say to the man without waiting; “Um, excuse me sir, my name is John Snow I was told to get my equipment and come to see you. Um, I am ready sir.”

Smirking to himself Master heard John but decided to see how long this John could handle being ignored, a test of patience. Since he is the Young Master it be best to have a large pool of patience, especially since he wanted military arts that should mean he wanted to join the military. 

After waiting a couple of minutes and the man did not move John turned walked over to Friedrick and then said, “Well, Friedrick looks like the man is napping will you be willing to join me in a bit of training.” 

However unknown to John, Master could hear and was not napping he was just meditating and cultivating. Master was surprised at John’s choice he did not get upset instead was being courteous and letting the man “rest,” but without opening his eyes he was curious what kind of training they would do without “waking” him. So Master decided to open himself to seeing Auras normally a person would still need to have their eyes open to use this ability. However as Master has been around a few years/decades he has been able to do so without opening his eyes. Which in this case is extremely helpful being able to watch those two exchanging any forms would help him to understand them both.

Friedrick nodded to John, “As you wish, Young Master;” Friedrick stated. He then turned toward the circle that was already concave from their constant use for training. Friedrick began warming up using same forms as before. Even though he did not need to do these warm up forms but Friedrick liked this routine plus he knew that John needed to warm up.

John felt a bit of a shiver every time he heard Friedrick say that it was just creepy. He watched Friedrick walk into the circle and begin his usual basic forms. John shook his head, looked back to the stranger saw he still hadn’t moved then followed Friedrick into the concave circle. Since John already had his Targe on and Zweihänder, he decided to go ahead and warm up and practice his sword forms. 

John began to practice long sword forms first then move to sword and buckler forms, he decided to begin with high guard which has the high above the head with both hands on the sword. Even though John is trying to gain the ability to one hand a two handed weapon he refuses to break proper form when practicing. Practicing a set of swings he then switches to hanging right which pushed the right arm far the left putting the hilt guard in front of the wielder’s face hanging the rest of the blade down the right side. After practicing a set of guards and counter swings. By swiping and switching to inside left attacking, by bringing blade up over and adjusting his blade into a forward thrust. John after doing the set he swapped to the other side and doing the same.

After going through all of the long sword forms. John dropped his sword and Targe at the edge of the circle. Once he finished setting the tools down he walked back into the middle across from Friedrick and asked Friedrick, “Are you finished?”

Friedrick nodded and walked up to the center, “hand to hand?”

John nodded, “Military rules.”

Hearing this Master was really surprised so he opened up his Ki and magic to  look at the boys using his ability Aura  he could see the boys, however as outlines filled with color kind of like Ki outline but aura contains everything Ki, magic, and soul it also showed the true shape or form of the object. both the boys are mostly White the shade of innocent, John had the colors bright vibrant orange was the shade of happy, the bright and vibrant part told him that John was excited,  white and outlined as Golden silver which is the shade of a blessing. Friedrick had white, the dullness of his aura spoke of the calmness, surprisingly there were two tendrils that reached out of Friedrick and touched John’s aura which surprised Master but spoke volumes Friedrick was becoming possessive bordering obsessed, however what was weird most people’s aura did not just stopped at the outlining shape but slightly bled off ever so slightly however Friedrick’s aura not just ended but seemed to absorb the aura into himself his outline was not only fixed but the aura around him was faded but extremely defined. Master had never seen anything like this before.

The exchange began Master was really curious, but quickly realized John was a boxer straight off the British Royal Naval ship. Master actually flinched when he saw this boxing that was till he saw the almost flawless movements. It was almost gorgeous the cleanly executed the only flaws he could see was the lack of footwork or as he should say the excellent statue mimicry. His movement from his waist up was amazing but the waist down he could cry he could actually swear a tear did escape.

After seeing this horrendous act, of boxing Master turned off the aura and opened his eyes. Friedrick was facing Master and John’s back was toward him. Friedrick was about to step out of his stance and bow. However Master shook his head and waved his hand meaning to continue. So Friedrick did not make a change he did quite the opposite he deflected John’s upper cut followed by a left jab. As soon as the jab was deflected Master slammed his right hand straight down on John’s head. 

John stunned for a second looked around then seen the stranger the man looking down at John looked up to the man with pitch black hair going in all directions as though he was struck by lightning pure white face with a scar from the top left of his face down to the right side of his chin. “Probably from a sword,” John thought to himself however it was wider. It couldn’t be from a Zweihänder but it would be too deep, then John realized he was distracting himself. This man definitely a well worn veteran however, John is well versed in military history there weren't any wars in the last 50 years. 

Where had this man been John wondered, but most of all he really wanted to know was why this man’s hand is squarely on his head. John finally asked, “why did you hit me sir?”

“Well that was surprising however, what you asked is not the correct question. the question really should be what happened to your feet?” Master countered.

“What do you mean by my feet sir,” John asked “I really don’t know, I watched several Royal Navy practices.”

“How from the waist up?” Master asked sarcastically

“Well the walls are a bit too tall for me. All I could see was punching and blocking,” John flatly stated.

“Hmm, Okay well try moving your feet;” Master stated 

Master then steps back out of the Circle and nods to Friedrick. Friedrick nodded back to Master then began to mimic Masters Muay Thai boxing stance. Shocked John had no idea what Friedrick was doing never seeing the stance that Friedrick was taking. Seeing John’s expression Friedrick decided to tell him, “I spent around an hour with Master I watched and studying between coughing up blood.”

John shocked could not believe that Friedrick went against the stranger already. Why, no how did he learn a new art in an hour. Then realized he could not have learned a new art, he could only poorly mimic it. Smiling widely he then charged at Friedrick expecting bad guards since it was only mimicked after only an hour of being watched. However after when he got just outside of arm's reach he tripped on something. As John was falling he saw it that was Friedrick’s foot. Wait what a foot that is not a legal move why. Yet, the stranger was still not saying anything what the hell. John stumbled for a second once he got his balance back looked over toward the stranger and said, “Sir, why haven’t you said anything he cheated.”

“CHEATED!” Master Yelled “how?” Master looked around exaggeratedly then bulged his eyes out as far as they could. “Friedrick you cheated well then I guess I will have to punish you by kicking you out of the battle circle.” Then dropped kicked Friedrick out of the circle. John saw Friedrick get kicked out of the circle and fly 5 feet out of the circle then land like a bag of potatoes and slide another 3 feet. Then the man stepped into the circle as soon as he looked at John. John saw a shimmer in the sky that seemed to encircle them for the entirety of the circle. When John looked back at Master, Master said “Now then, the cheater is out of the circle let us see how you do. Friedrick get me some sticks ready”

“Yes sir,” Friedrick bowed to Master then stepped away. To get the sticks that was requested for the testing.

John became confused and then took a step back and tripped again. After John wakes up from his daze, he realizes he is back on his ass again by tripping within 5 minutes of fall. Looking over to see what he tripped on his Sword, and Targe.  “How the fuck did they get in the circle,” John thought to himself. 

Master seeing John tripped again had to hold back a laugh, finally seeing John brought himself back finally then looked at what tripped him and the confusion. Master stated, “what I brought them back into the circle, be glad I already seen your crappy martial skills let’s see your sword and targe skills.”

John equipped his Targe and  Zweihänder thankfully training against Friedrick father Khang taught him about how to fall without bouncing his head off the ground. With that he learned to keep his balance, putting himself into the proper sword and buckler stances that he learned from his father Edward, and Friedrick’s father Khang. 

Master seeing this practiced stance made Master happy. Having these kids already well trained made this so much better however do they know how and why these are created? Definitely need to expand their martial skills, and see how their mental and knowledge skills are currently.

John got himself into a proper short stance and used both hands for a change. seeing those two strange abilities John was not going to take this exchange lightly. Gripping his sword tighter he verified he still had two war hammers on his Targe. A short stance which John chose required his right foot forward and bent at an almost 90 degree angle with the left back and fully straight with his back. The sword was on the left side with the Targe was on left arm in a fully straight position and the right bent in a 45 degree slant. With his body turned slightly to the right the Targe covered most of his major organs.With John’s ability to handle the blade in an unconventional one handed style, this gave him the ability to guard much like a sword and buckler than normal two handed swordsman. Hoping that Friedrick had not told this man of his goal or abilities John prepared himself for a difficult fight. John spent a good while standing there in the stance waiting but the man never did anything curious John finally asked, “Um, what are you waiting for?”

Smiling Master just simply, “sticks.”

John was confused but just accepted. Just as John was about to ask for the explanation Friedrick showed up with a bundle of straight sticks about as big around as John’s thumb.

“Here sir, I hope you have enough sticks,” Friedrick stated

“Good, thank you. Hopefully that is enough but we will see.” Master said excitedly. “Just set them there I will get them as needed.”

Suddenly a stick shot toward Master. Surprisingly John did not flinch or jump back instead he just stood there unshaken. Master was impressed with John’s resolve.

“Okay, you have waited long enough and seeing your sword stance, you must have practiced for a long time. Let us begin!” Stated Master

At that Master walked up to John’s attack range, John attacked stepping forward making his left leg his leading leg, lifting the blade up and swinging his blade down from his left down to the right at Master. No surprise he parried with the stick. Surprising John felt a sharp pain shot through his left leg. John looked down saw nothing. John went to step back for a guard, however, he couldn’t stop his leg was completely weakened and numb. Trying to step but he fell to the ground, dropping his stance it took everything to prevent dropping his sword.

Master was shocked at the lack of actual skill John showed. Master shield, “Is this really all you have for skill?”

John finally getting feeling in his left leg. John shied, “Okay, I am not practicing two-handed I am working on sword and buckler style.”

Dropping his left hand John gets himself into a proper sword and buckler style. John was doing his best to not use his best style like Friedrick was sure did not use Kobudo. Khang made sure he learned it spending more hours learning it then his own martial skill and learning the targe guard. Stating that “the best defense was a good offense” then beat John till he coughed up blood. So John prepared himself for the next attack knowing the attack was coming, the only question was where and when the attack was coming from.