Hunter's Beginning (Veller) (44 page)

Watching Alex spar with Carter wasn’t exactly helping her get a better understanding of swordsmanship as she had hoped. Alex was anything but a swordsman, but
she had to admit he had a rather unique defense, he never stopped moving. Boraro did say that the best defense was never to get hit, and Alex took it quite literally. He was running around so much that Carter couldn’t hit him even though he tried, but for all the moving, Alex wasn’t landing too many shots of his own.

“He’ll
tire himself out eventually.” Kile called out.

“That’s what I’m waiting for.” Carter replied, but he wasn’t really. Carter was biding his time, he saw the movements, calculated how fast Alex was going and struck out just in front of the boy who ran face first into the outstretched wooden bl
ade. Alex fell flat on his back.

“Hey, you cheated, that’s not a proper attack.”
He shouted from the ground.

“That’s not a proper defense.” Carter shot back.

Alex jumped to his feet, not once, not twice but three times. Three Alexes faced off against one Carter.

“Now who’s cheating?” Carter said as he fell into a defensive stance.

Kile had to admit that the two illusions that Alex created were difficult to tell from the real Alex. It was an impressive trick and Kile wondered how Boraro would have handled something like that. The appearance of one Alex was enough to make grown men cry.

As she watched Alex’s new technique unfold, which wasn’t much different from the old once except now there w
ere three of him, she realized that he had made one slight error. It might not have been so much an error as it might have been a consequence of the illusion. The problem was that the shadows didn’t match. They were pretty good in respect to detail, but one of them was darker than the other, which could only mean illusions can’t cast shadows and that the shadows themselves were also illusions. Of course she had no true facts to base this assumption on, and she was about to mention this to Carter, but thought better of it. She would keep that little secret to herself in the event that she had to spar with Alex some time in the future; besides, it was fun watching the otherwise unflappable Cater becoming a bit flustered.

The illusions and Alex moved individually around him, surrounding him. She could tell Carter was monitoring his defensive circle
, as Boraro had instructed, by keeping all the Alexes outside the perimeter, but he was minding it too much. If he had been paying more attention to his opponent, or in this case his opponents, he may have noticed the inconsistencies in the shadows as well.

Alex one made his move, coming in from behind with a mid level thrust and Carter spun to parry, but his blade
passed through his attacker, this gave Alex two, which turned out to be the real Alex, a free shot at Carter’s now exposed back. Carter was still the faster and this time the two wooden blades clashed as he easily knocked it aside, but before he could counter Alex retreated outside the circle and began to run around Carter with his two counterparts.

“This is like a shell game.” Kile remarked in disbelieve. She never thought she would see a duel quite like this, or a duel like this was even possible.

“He’s good at this, he’ll wear Carter down.” Daniel explained.

This time two Alexes jumped in at one time and Carter could only defend himself against one, Kile could have told him which one was the real Alex as she watched the shadows, but Carter
choose the wrong Alex and was rewarded by a shot to his backside, a favorite target of the small boy. The Alexes retreated back outside the circle and started to shuffle again.

“How long can he keep that up?”
She asked Daniel.

“Quite some time.” He replied. “He’s not nervous he’s having too much fun. It’s only when he gets nervous that he tends
to lose his concentration.”

The Alexes stopped and this time all three broke the circle. Carter chose the wrong Alex again, and got hit for his mistake
. Kile could clearly see the frustration on the larger boy's face.

“So,
that's how you want to play.” Carter ginned, and then vanished.

It was something that none of them had expected, least of all Alex. Carter was there one moment, and then he was gone. Alex stopped and his two illusions vanished as well.

“What just…”

Before Alex could finish his words he was knocked to the ground and Carter reappeared, his blade pointing at the smaller boy’s throat.

“I think I won.”

“That was so cool.” Alex said with a grin as Carter helped him to his feet. “When did you learn that?”

“I said I learned something better than illusions.”

“Oh you have to teach me how you did that.” Alex demanded.

“Maybe, if you behave.”

“You can become invisible?” Daniel remarked, getting to his feet.

“It's something Morgan’s been teaching me, it’s like creating an illusion around yourself, to tell you the truth that was the first time it really worked, but I can’t keep it up for long, not yet anyway.” Carter said as he wiped the sweat from his brow. “So Ki, you want to give it a try.”

“Turning invisible, can’t do it.” She replied shaking her head.

“I meant sparring.”

“You still up to it?”

“Of course I am, I need someone to give me a challenge.”

“
You're not gong to vanish on me are you?” She asked as she took the sword from Alex with her left hand.

“Not unless you give me a reason to.” He grinned. “We’ll work on your
defense; it would appear you need it.”

The sword was lighter and shorter
than the ones they used during class. It still felt awkward but at least she could swing it better.

Carter called out his attacks as he had done with Daniel earlier, it gave her a chance to study his motion, his
footwork, the position of his hands on his sword, and knowing what the attack looked like before he landed it. She was able to set them aside with ease. When he was sure she had the basics down, he changed tactics and went on defense. Telling her which attacks to use so that he could make sure that she executing them correctly. This went on, back and forth for a few minutes until Kile felt she was getting the hang of it, to such a point that she hadn’t realized Carter had stopped calling out his attacks. She watched his footwork, his body position and the line of his sight and she could determine where and how he was going to attack. It was the same thing she had done with Eric, once she no longer had to worry about the pain in her hand, she could concentrate on her opponent. The concept of the defendable circle was completely lost on her and she never really saw the point of it if you could read your opponents moves.

“This is booooooring.” Alex called out from his seat against the wall. “I came to see a real fight.”

“I think Eric and his cronies are practicing over by the dinning hall if you want to join them.” Daniel replied.

“I said I came to see a fight, not be in one.”

“I’m not ready for a real duel.” Kile admitted as she broke off her attack to catch her breath. She took off her hat and wiped her brow.

“I don’t know, you did pretty good against Eric.” Daniel replied.

“That was sheer luck.”

“I wouldn’t go that far.” Carter added. “You somehow predicted his moves and countered, of course fighting left handed didn’t hurt
. I think that really threw him off.”

“Well, maybe, but he had no real
… skill. He was just all power and no finesse.”

“
That’s all combat really is, just overpowering your opponent.” Carter replied.

“There has to be more to it
than that.”

“No, Not really, you want to give it a try?”

“What, my finesse against your power?”

Carter didn’t
answer; he just took a defensive stance and saluted his opponent. Kile put her hat back on returned the salute as she took her own stance.

“I don’t think this is a good idea guys.” Daniel injected.

“I think it’s a great idea.” Alex said as he leaned forward.

“Carter, just watch out for her hand, I don’t want to have to mend it again.”

They faced one another, slowly circling, keeping each other outside their defendable circles. This would be the battle that never ends she thought as neither one wanted to go on the attack, but she had no plans of continuing this all through the night. She initiated her first attack, not the overhead power play that everyone seemed to like, but a fast low thrust. She was surprised on how close she had gotten before he knocked her weapon aside, he countered with his own attack, something faster and harder, she blocked it with ease and managed to surprise herself as much as she surprised him, however she never followed through and he was able to attack again, and again. As Carter had said, it was all about power and he was throwing his entire weight into each attack. She managed to deflect most of them although one did get through, catching her on the side of the leg. She took the hit and spun into his circle, because she came in on his left side, something a right handed opponent wouldn’t have done, he wasn’t able to get his blade up in time and had to throw himself backwards, out of the way or take the hit upside the head. She came in again, keeping on his left side, forcing him to block across himself.

She knew he was pulling his punches
to some degree since she had left herself exposed on more than one occasion, and she had overshot on a few. There was no way she could match him blow for blow, but she concentrated more on him than on the elusive defendable circles that she was supposed to maintain. His movements were easy to read, he had shown them to her enough times and she could counter them now with ease, she just never managed to follow through and that was what cost her the most as Carter kept realigning himself and she would be forced to constantly move to his left side. It was clear by the way he was standing that he had trouble defending from the left.

“You got him on the run now Kile girl.”

She heard Alex call out. It was kind of uplifting to have a cheering section.

“Now turn invisible Carter and whack her.”

Of course it was a fickle cheering section.

They kept up the dance for a little while longer, neither one really gaining the upper hand. Kile knew that Carter could have
won any time he wanted and was only prolonging it to give her the practice that she needed, of course that was before he vanished.

It was a dirty trick, and it was a dangerous move. It was one thing for him to vanish against Alex because he knew what Alex could, or couldn’t do about it, but he had no idea what
her edge was, and what she could do. As it was, her edge wasn’t very effective in combat situations so he was fortunate in that respect, but she wasn’t beaten yet. Unlike Alex who just stood there in awe, Kile knew what was coming and kept moving. The thing was, and she wasn’t sure why she didn’t notice it before, she knew where he was. He wasn’t there, but he was, or at least she could see him, although she really couldn’t. It was something of a feeling she had, and she had learned to react to those feelings. So when the invisible Carter launched his attack, she easily set it aside. He took three more shots at her and she set all three of them aside and even launched a counterattack that missed him, but still caught him off guard.

“How in the name of Aru did you do that?” Carter asked as he reappeared.

“Trade secret.” She grinned. She wasn’t going to tell him because she wasn’t really sure herself. “Well, that was fun but I want to get cleaned up before supper.” She said as she tossed the wooden sword to Daniel. “I’ll see you guys later.”

“That was freaky.” Alex whispered when he thought she was out of earshot. “I couldn’t see you at all.”

“She saw every move you made before you made it.” Daniel added. “You shouldn’t have gone so easy on her.” He laughed.

“
That's just it, I stopped going easy on her half way through; I was just trying to keep myself from looking like a fool.”

“Maybe she lied to us and she’s already a
Hunter.” Alex remarked, “You know, a spy from the guild to see how well the academy is doing.”

“I think they would have sent someone that blended in a little better.” Daniel assured him.

“You think she’s had training before?” Carter asked.

“You saw her performance with Boraro, maybe she just a fast learner, that’s all.”

“That was really fast.” Carter laughed.

Nobody saw Luke looking out from the loft of the stables before he
disappeared back into the shadows.

***~~~***

16

They continued their education with the wooden swords for the better part of the month, and although Master Boraro didn’t single Kile out every day, he did make it a point to assign her a partner that was less
than easy on her. The problem was that she never had the same sparring partner twice. Just as she started to learn one person’s routine and effectively counter it, Master Boraro switched her to another cadet and she had to start all over again. If she didn’t know better she would have thought he was deliberately trying to confuse her, although she could understand the practicality of it. It wasn’t as if she was going to fight the same person in every battle she was ever going to have from that point on. Then there were the injuries. She wound up with more cuts, scrapes and bruises than the entire class combined. Not only did she break her fingers again, but her foot as well, as one rather large and aggressive sparring partner stomped on it during a somewhat heated exchange, and to add to the suffering, he then punched her in the face, breaking her noise, needless to say it was not one of her better days. If nothing else, she was getting to know the healers quite well. She was also developing a rather unique trait; she could spar with both her left and her right hand equally.