Several months passed and after training every day with Uncle Chris, and I’d yet to even make him stumble. I felt much faster on my feet, and I could go for longer hours, yet I felt almost stumped.
It felt like I was living the same day over and over again. I woke up, went to our training grounds, had my face shoved into the dirt for a few hours, then came home, not a step closer to landing a hit.
Steven had begun to come to our sessions, taking delight in the spectacle of Uncle Chris repeatedly pushing me down after gracefully swimming around all my attacks.
“Get up, Ray. One more time.” The Old Man’s voice boomed from behind me.
I shake off the weariness from a day’s worth of training, and push myself to my feet once more. I dust off my pants and flick the dirt off my blade, standing ready to charge him once more.
Uncle Chris was again unmoving, staring at me intently. Even the slightest mistake would lead to me on the ground, any exchange where I was still standing afterwards was a grand achievement.
I made my advance, as I had many times before, only this time the culmination of our months of training showed itself in my sure steady steps. I stared unblinking at Uncle Chris as my sword sliced through the air aimed at his side.
The fractions of seconds played stretched out in my mind, Uncle Chris’ figure bent, and I saw him blur to the left away from my blade. Before my mind was even able to realise what’s happened, my body knew to move and strike to where he had warped to with his inhuman speed.
I committed to my swing, bringing it all the way through to the space I guessed Uncle Chris would reappear at, and sure enough there he was, right in the path of my sword. I caught his brief surprise on his face when he realized I’d been able to follow his movements, before he disappeared again as fast as he’d appeared before.
I felt a weight on my blade that violently launched my sword out of my hand, and I’m pushed down, falling flat on my nose atop my sword. I hadn’t seen what happened, but I guessed Uncle Chris jumped up off my sword, landing behind me and knocking me down.
It doesn’t matter that I got knocked down though, I jumped up from the floor quickly, blood dripping down my nose, and a giddy smile across my face. “I could see you!” I squeal with uncontainable joy, “I saw you move!”
Uncle Chris laughed, “That you did, Laddie! Almost had me there, I’ll have to be even more careful now.”
“You’re going to make it harder than it already is?” I groaned.
“I can’t make it too easy, or your mom won’t let you go.” He shrugged. Uncle Chris tossed me a handkerchief, “Go rest, Laddie. You earned it.”
I cleaned my nose and moved to sit with Steven on the fallen tree trunk laying on the side of the clearing we practiced on.
“You could see him?” Steven asked.
I nodded, “Finally, it only took months of sparring with him.”
“Means you're improving though, right? Your Diving days are just on the horizon.” He smiled at me.
“I don’t know, it still feels so hopeless.” I sighed.
“I mean he’s legendary for a reason,” Steven elbowed me in the side, “Which means you’re just that much more impressive.”
“Doesn’t matter how impressive it is if I can’t beat him.” I frowned.
“Even I took my first steps, Laddie,” Uncle Chris said, walking over to us with a drink in his hand, “You’ve far more potential than I, but potential is all it is should you not develop it properly.” He sat next to me, letting out a satisfied sigh as he sipped from his cup. “If you keep coming at me like that I’ll have to be more careful, lest you split me in half.”
“If he does kill you there’s no way his mom can stop him from being a Diver.” Steven joked.
Uncle Chris laughed, “You’re right! Maybe it’s better if it works out that way so we don’t have to argue with her again once you beat me.” Uncle Chris turns to me, “Though, it takes more than a foolish boy and his ridiculous sword to kill Christopher Olbeck.” He told me cheekily.
“I’m not going to kill you, but I’ll be sure to beat you.” I promised him.
“Maybe one day, Laddie, Maybe one day.”
Another week passes with no progress. I quickly learned that seeing the Old Man move was not nearly enough to be able to beat him. Watching him was all I could do, even if I saw where he was going, I couldn’t possibly move quick enough to best him.
He’d jump off my sword just to show off, dance around me for hours without breaking a sweat, mock me by doing handstands and running off away from me. It was clear he wasn’t taking any of this seriously.
A long day’s worth of training had left me beat up and bruised, and I wandered to the smithy sadly, dragging my sword lamely behind me in the dirt. When I walked in, Steven sat alone, working on whatever project he had in front of him I couldn’t make sense of.
“Ouch, looks like today was extra rough on you, huh?” Steven winced when he saw me.
“Uncle Chris insisted we work especially hard on today’s practice, I think he’s getting impatient with me not making any progress.” I sighed, letting my sword fall at my feet with a loud clank.
I sat next to Steven and my exhausted body ached with every breath. “You can’t just show up and run at him over and over expecting to win, you need a plan.” Steven said.
“And what might you propose, o’ great master Steven?” I asked him.
Steven, weak as ever to praise, smiled brightly and said, “I’ve seen some of your matches with him recently, you’re light on your feet, your strike is strong and fierce, and your magic is in no short supply, but the Old man keeps shrugging you off.”
I made an exaggeratedly sullen face at his harsh words, and Steven quickly added “but I don’t think you can’t get him”
Once you got Steven’s brain working, a solution is always produced, before recently, I was far too physically behind to even have a chance against Uncle Chris, but the months of rigorous training have made it so if it’s just a hit, I may have a chance, so long as it’s not impossible, Steven finds a way.
“You have way too much magic, so much that it's almost not fair, which is what lets you wield that greatsword so easily, with that, you might be able to wear the Old Man down, and win with your greater endurance.”
Steven made a good suggestion, the only issue is if Uncle Chris kept knocking me down, I’d be out of commission before he even broke a sweat.
“How am I supposed to stay on my feet long enough to wear him down?”
“Use your massive greatsword to your advantage, keep at a reasonable range, out of where he can push you down while still making him move and dodge your attacks, you favor low, strong attacks, too heavily”
I held my chin in thought. Of course it may seem like my signature move was the ‘charge low at the Old Man and strike only to get a mouth full of dirt’, but that was because it was the fastest way to approach him, coming in quick with a heavy jab he’d fail to parry had always been my plan previously, but I suppose trying to out-speed the fastest man in the world might not be the smartest thing.
Slowly getting more and more excited as I realised this plan just might work, I excitedly grabbed up Steven in a hug and spun him around at the prospect of finally beating that Old Man.
“Thanks, Steven” I say to him
“No problem man”
I really was lucky to have a friend like him, Steven had saved my sorry ass from more situations than I can remember, making up excuses when I break something, or get too rough with another kid, I’ve spent almost every day with him up till now, but with Steven’s work at the Smithy, if I wanted to go out to become a Diver, that’d mean we’d have to part for the first time in our lives.
As that realisation slowly set in, I almost didn’t want to beat the Old Man, even if it meant eating a thousand more facefulls of dirt, I felt like I could do it if it meant staying here with Steven.
With no one to bail me out of a tough spot, no one to talk to when times get rough, I realised just what my dream to become a Diver meant for me. It was going to be dangerous, it was not going to be fun, but that was not reason to give up my dream. I had spent far too long fantasizing about this adventure, far too long doing soul sucking training to turn back now.
As I sat and thought, Steven seemed to realise this too and spoke up,
“Hey, Ray, if you ever chip your sword slaying some mighty corrupted Fire Dragon when you’re out as a Diver, come back here, I’ll fix it up for you, free of charge.”
“I will.” I told him appreciatively, we both sat in silence there together. Once I was done, I stood up, and put my greatsword on my back as I began to move to the exit.
“Hey Ray,” Steven called to me. I stopped and turned, looking him in the eye.
“Beat that Old Man's ass.” He gave me a massive goofy smile and a thumbs up, and I replied back with a smile of my own.
“Damn right I will.”
The next day I woke earlier than usual, I had a good feeling today was the day. My legs felt limber, my arms felt strong, my sword felt like an extension of my own body, everything had fallen into place today to let this happen.
I walked to our usual training grounds where the Old Man waited for me, leaning on his sword.
“Up bright and early today aren’t we Laddie?” He beamed at me.
“My name is Ray, not Laddie Old Man.” I said to him cheekily.
“And my name is Christopher, not Old Man, Laddie.”
And with that we need say nothing more, Uncle Chris took up his sword in a fighting stance, and I took my greatsword off my back, holding it towards him.
At this point, I would’ve already lowered myself and dashed at the Old Man ready to jab him where I thought he may be vulnerable, but today was different, today I would take down the Old Man, I would stand on equal footing with him.
“What’s this? You feel like a different man today Laddie”
“That may just be so.”
The Old Man smiled at me and did something he hadn’t done a single time throughout our entire training. He charged at me.
It had always been him avoiding my attacks, but today he was taking the initiative, this threw the whole plan I had concocted with Steven out of whack, but I wasn't totally unprepared for it. I parried his overhead swing with the blunt of my blade and ducked out to the side
“What’s the matter Laddie? Running away won’t let you hit me!” the Old Man provoked.
I stepped back, this could work fine, I can still wear him out, but it’ll be harder to keep him far enough away to not knock me over. Keeping that in mind, I feinted a jab at him which he moved to parry, when I instead dove into a roll past him, swinging my sword around to his back.
The Old Man obviously panicked, but quickly regained his cool, and jumped.
I felt the Old Man’s weight on my greatsword, he used it as a spring again to jump over my head and back behind me. That nimble bastard.
“You’ve got some tricks up your sleeve today dont you Laddie? What happened to the cute little one track minded boy I used to know?”
He was thoroughly enjoying this, which meant I was putting up a good fight. Though he’d be on his toes from now on, I couldn’t pull something like that again without eating dirt.
I tried extending my arm out for a single handed jab, attempting to beat him out with range, but as expected, I was just too slow. He dodged it with ease, but my plan wasn’t to hit him. I need him to be jumping around dodging, the longer I get him to run the better chance I have of catching a mistake.
“We can do this all day Laddie!” He called out to me, I could tell this is taking a toll on his aging body, what a monster this man must have been at his prime. I shivered before reminding myself to keep my stay vigilant. Uncle Chris was attacking now too, he wasn’t just keeping on the defense.
As if reading my thoughts, I look down and it seems as if the Old Man teleported there, I panic and move to dodge but his blade scrapes at my cheek. Is this guy trying to kill me?
He saw my surprise and called out “Those Gargs won’t pull any punches! They aim to kill and so will I! Don't die Laddie!”
He was laughing way too much. The image of the sweet old man from my childhood was gone, this guy is definitely crazy.
I came at him once more and brought my heavy sword down overhead, he held his at an angle to allow my sword to scrape off to the side, but even if he was just deflecting it, my sword was huge, much too big for the small nimble Old Man to take without some consequences.
After he blocked a few more strikes I noticed him becoming the slightest bit slower, he rushed me once more and went for a wide underhand swing with his short-sword, I didn't bother parrying and just dove out of the way. While he recovered from his attack, I came at him from the side. As I dashed towards him, I saw a smile on the Old Man’s face like he had me. I instinctively jumped back, and just as I did, I saw his sword fly through the air where I would’ve been had I carried through with the attack. Yep, that settled it, this crazy guy was trying to kill me.
Moving with grace and speed unbefitting of his age, the old man ran, staying low to the ground, and picking up his weapon once more, as he did so, I decided to do something sneaky. If this Old Man could throw his weapon and go for kill shots, I’d take some liberties as well. I quickly dragged my massive sword over the dirt and used it to kick up dust in the Old Man’s direction.
“Playing dirty now are we?”
He’s one to talk, I thought as I rolled my eyes.
Even though I kicked up this dust, the Old Man rushed through my cloud using it to his advantage, but I expected the crafty Old Man to deal with it. He wasn’t considered a world class warrior for nothing. And with that my bait was successful.
My leg swept under the Old Man and knocked his legs out from under him, with a yelp he fell down. I quickly put my foot on his back to stop him from getting up and put my sword to the back of his neck.
“It’s over, Uncle Chris”
“So it seems”
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