Chapter 49: It’s why I’m here

Chapter 49: It’s why I’m here"Really? Here?" Caius asked with a gesture at the garden. It seemed like such a shame to desecrate the ground with blood and other body fluids caused by exertion. "I thought grass was better than concrete. Not to worry though, next time we train, we’ll head to the Arena instead," Lucian said. "Great," Caius said through gritted teeth feeling like he just put his foot in his mouth. Lucian let out a laugh and then went silent for a while before saying, "I need to ask you one thing first. Do you want to become a Mage-Knight? It’s alright if you want to follow the ’Traditional ways’ instead but if you decide to be a Mage-Knight, it will require all of your dedication, all of your focus and it will be tough. You can’t excel at it if your heart’s not in it." Caius took a breath. "I want to do this." He said with determination. "Good," Lucian said with a bright smile as he handed Caius the training sword he had been observing before his arrival, "Here. Tell me how it feels." "Good," Caius said as he felt the sword’s weight. Lucian stroked his bearded chin as he said in a voice of sagely wisdom, "There’s a lot that goes into making a weapon ’perfect’. Swords especially are meant to be balanced and that can vary from person to person. It’s made even worse because, due to our ever-increasing physical ability with each Magical Advancement, we can outgrow the weight of our weapon and have to get it re-adjusted. We have to seek out increasingly denser materials or just have the weapons carved with special runes to make them wieldable." Caius gave the sword a few swings. "I think this is fine though," he said. Lucian folded his arms with a bit of a frown, "It’s the average weight for a Third Circle Mage-Knight. If swords become your preferred weapon, we’ll have to get a better one custom-made for you. But it’ll do for this introduction." "Alright," Caius said, ready for the next set of instructions. "Your task is to land a hit on me," Lucian said then. Caius laughed. "That’s impossible unless you stand still." "Don’t sell yourself so short. I won’t be attacking and I’ll have one hand behind my back," Lucian said as he took a stance and indeed placed a hand behind his back. "Exactly," Caius said with a self-deprecating smile, "Standing still." "Just do it," Lucian said with a little laugh, "The goal here is not to win or lose." "Alright," Caius said and raised the practice sword. He was just about to charge forward when Lucian called out in a clear voice. "Right there already. Your stance is too lax. Try this..." Lucian showed Caius a stance and he replicated it, already feeling more grounded. "Good," Lucian praised, "Now, begin." The stance Caius had adopted put one of his legs forward and also had his foot pointed at Lucian in a way that made him feel like he was practically springing forward when he did decide to move. "Ha!" Caius let out in delight before he realized he had become so lost in the springiness of his movement and didn’t swing his sword until he was within a foot of his father’s body. He made to correct his lapse only to have his wrist easily grabbed. "You got distracted by your footwork?" Lucian asked, accurately pinpointing the issue. "Yeah," Caius said a bit sheepishly. "Happens to the best of us," Lucian assured him, "Try again." And try he did. Taking steps back to the position he had started in, Caius adopted the stance again, taking a few seconds to make sure he got it right, and then he sprang forward. He almost yelled ’Weeee’ in his head at the feeling but he kept focus and swung his sword in time. Lucian blocked the swing with his forearm while nodding. "Good. But try it like this instead," he said as he mimicked holding a sword and taking a swing. "Ohh, that does look better," Caius said. He stepped back into position, took a few seconds to adopt the stance again, and then sprang forward. He had a perfect image of what he had just been shown and replicated it so well, it got his father’s black eyes twinkling with pride behind the blue lens of his glasses. Like he was glad this would actually be a fruitful endeavor. They spent about fifteen minutes after that on Caius making different swings only for Lucian to stop it easily and tell him how to do it better before telling him to repeat what he was just shown. The sun was setting and cast the garden in a red-gold glow that added to the atmosphere. For a moment, Caius found it funny how this seemed like a scene from a movie when the hero goes on a montage for about ten minutes before emerging as an expert. Alas, reality was not that easy. He was replicating swings well but certainly not with the same intensity and drive and with much less practiced moves. Caius wasn’t disheartened, of course. After all, this was quite literally his first time doing this in both lives. What he was disappointed with himself about was how difficult he was finding it to chain the swings he had been taught together into combos. Whenever he hit an attack, there’d be some break in his structure that Lucian could easily exploit and send him back a few steps to try again. And then, when the sun was completely gone from the horizon and the moon had begun to rise in the sky, he finally felt himself in tune with the moment. He settled into the stance the fastest he had so far and didn’t have to spend seconds trying to make sure he got it right. When he sprang forward from his stance, he did so with an alertness that left him sharp enough to time his sword swing just right. It was blocked but the point was never to land the hit. He took advantage of the way the block deflected the blade of the practice sword to transition into the next swing in the combo. Again, he was blocked and again he transitioned to the next swing. Every swing was executed right when it should have and it all culminated in a jab that aimed the practice sword’s blade at his father’s throat. Lucian blocked it with a finger but he was nodding encouragingly while Caius was already grinning at finally succeeding at the combo. "Well done," Lucian said. Caius stumbled back and doubled over to grab his knees. "Thank you," he said trying not to heave too much in a show of his fatigue. "We still have a long way to go. Fortunately, we’ll have all weekend." "Oh," Caius said, "Great." His voice sounded a bit deadpan and that was partly because he was tired and also partly because he wasn’t sure how he felt about that news. He had enjoyed this little moment enough but was worried about doing this for many, many more hours over the course of two days uninterrupted by school. Quickly enough though, he shook his head and knocked all those doubting thoughts from his mind. This was quite literally one of the most important things to his overall goal and reason for being in this world. "I’m starting to feel bad for starting this up right after you got back from school," Lucian said with a slightly unsure smile as he observed his son still doubled over. "It’s all good," Caius said and raised a hand to give a thumbs-up. Lucian laughed. "Go get some rest, son. You have school tomorrow," he said, and then retrieved a canister from his Storage Ring which he handed to Caius just as he was getting back upright. "Here. This should help you recover." Caius received the canister, already able to smell the fresh beast blood within. It was certainly appetizing. All the energy he had gained from today’s bloodsucking was already spent so he was very grateful. "Thank you," he said. "For the canister?" Lucian asked in a tone that made it clear he was waving it off as a nothing burger even if he still looked hurt at having to feed his son blood. "And for the training," Caius amended. Lucian gave him a crooked smile. "It’s why I’m here."