training montage, now with more RAGE!!!!

The town of Rookburg was a well known place for tourists, and it was a town known for its large stone walls, and Count Quintus who watches over the land being a retired adventurer who had even gotten to level 40. This combined with the location made it so Rookburg was often a cooking pot of strange people, and even stranger actions and antics. One such antic seemed to be happing outside the city walls. 

A group had gathered, at first the two in the middle had been making such a ruckus. A group of 4 others stood to the side seemingly waiting their turns as the two in the middle clashed with a level of ferocity that made it seem like a duel to the death. The traded insults just seemed to add to the spectacle of it. 

Circling in the middle, a full blood wolf beastkin snarled as they lunged striking out with paw and fang, a look of pure malice on their face as they lunged and attacked. Across from them a man with cyan short hair and a set of glasses glared back with a gaze just as sharp as the growls of their opponent. 

"What part of focus don't you get? I thought you wanted to be warrior!"

Jax shot forward, his paw colliding with my chest as my feet slid back. My entire body ached from the morning training, and yet a guttural flame burned too hot to let something like pain slow me down. Will took control of my hand as it shot down and grabbed Jax's paw.

"Like your one to talk you alcoholic fleabag!"

I roared as I strained my body, twisting as I flung Jax over my shoulder and slammed him into the dirt with a satisfying sound on impact. We both jumped back making distance as Jax and I glared each other down.

Party leader Jax has landed a strike on you

You have taken 10 damage

Fragmented Will(E) has activated and taken control of your left arm

You have slammed party leader Jax to the ground

Party leader Jax has taken 10 damage.

The both of us stared, breathing heavy but hiding it behind cold rigidity as we stayed still so our opponent couldn't get a hint of our next attack. We stayed still for a moment before I saw Jax's eyes glance over, taking the chance Will grabbed control of my right arm as my spear flew forward like a javelin forcing Jax to jump into the air to dodge it. 

He already could see my plan before he landed as I rushed forward, my left arm flying with a punch. My punch connected against Jax's stomach, but as he spun, Jax's leg flicked out and cracked me across the jaw. 

I didn't even have time to see the system announcement of what happened as I went flying back and tumbled a few times, blacking out.

Kaelen woke me a few moments later with a healing spell as the others were gathered around me. Jax had gone from snarling brawler to worried friend again as I held my forehead. The crowd around us had started to disperse. 

"I'm fine, really I'm fine. How the hell did you hit me from that angle?"

I asked looking at Jax bewildered. Jax shrugged at me and said.

"I just kicked my foot out and caught you, was a spur of the moment thing more than an intentional thing."

I rolled my eyes at this as we all headed back for the vehicle, both Jax and I wincing occasionally due to the myriad of bruises all over our body's. As we walked I couldn't help but wonder why we had gotten so worked up in the mornings spar. Will however seemed happy to provide the insider scoop.

"Well you all just walked away from a situation where you could do nothing, so there is the feeling of powerlessness you wanted to overcome for one thing, the other may be from the fact that you feel stagnant compared to the others like Liora who managed to rank up her wind blast skill to D rank and Selene who upgraded her mutate skill to D rank."

It was a rather concise and overarching explanation that made me ask. Exactly how do you always come to such detailed and specific conclusions about our mental health? I could feel Will getting annoyed as he yelled.

"I am stuck in your brain 24/7, if I'm not helping you with this stuff it becomes as cluttered as an uncleaned workspace in here!"

Will continued to go into a tirade for a minute as I turned to the others. The shock of yesterday's events was still weighing on everyone, but the mornings training seemed to have helped a lot. Even those without a skill ranking up still could feel themselves improving bit by bit day by day. So while nobody was cured of the residual fear we had felt yesterday, it was at least starting to get better. 

As we made our way into town, we had different jobs. Kaelen and Jax had gotten the short end of the stick and were tasked to turn in our quest from the Tanis farmhouse. Selene and Thalia were tasked with finding us an inn, which left Liora and I to hang out and wait for the others. 

"So that belt is what you got from the dungeon?"

Liora asked gesturing to the belt I had wrapped around my left bicep. While it was meant to be a belt, the mechanism within had a pull cord, and the act of pulling it from the normal location of a belt was clunky and weird. 

Luckily for me the belt would adjust size to fit where it was placed, so I had put it on my bicep for an easier pull to activate the item. As we walked along I heard what sounded to be metal as we turned to se a figure in full armor running up to us. 

The man was a good head taller than me and covered in plate armor. Red accents of cloth occasionally coming out of different parts including a stretch around the mans waist. On his back a simple, but well used spear sat. We stepped back to let the man pass, but instead he came to a stop and spoke to us.

"Excuse me, would you be the boy who was dueling that full blood wolf this morning?"

I glanced to Liora for a moment surprised before turning back.

"Uh, yea that's me. Did I break a city rule or?"

I began but the man held up a hand.

"Nothing like that, I just happened to see it this morning and thought I recognized you, I'm a spearman as well as you can see."

I nodded along not sure where to go from there as the man seemed to scratch at the back at his helmeted head as he glanced around before turning back.

"Um, I noticed you all have a vehicle, where exactly are you all headed?"

At this Liora seemed to tense slightly as she asked in a suspicious tone.

"Were headed to Alderhelm, why do you want to know Mr. spearman?"

The man seemed confused for a moment before he seemed to realize something as he held his arms up in mock surrendered.

"Oh my gods, I didn't mean it like that, I just am meeting an old friend in Fortunz and wanted to know if you were headed in that direction and if I could maybe catch a ride so I'm not going as far on foot. Not for free of course."

Liora gave the man a suspicious scowl as I stepped between them.

"Well, we might have room for one more, but it would be a good 5 days of travel with us, are you sure you can pay for it?"

The man nodded as he reached around to a traveling bag he had tied around the shaft of his spear as he pulled out a small blue book. On the cover were pictures of pencil drawn humans in various poses with spears in hand with the word Accel spearmanship. Liora and I both glanced at each other realizing the man had a training book.

"I'm offering this book to pay for my portion of travel fees, and if your willing to sponsor food along the way I will even spend some time during the evenings helping you improve your spearmanship."

I was ready to agree with the training book alone, but the advice on how to get better with a spear was something I needed. However a while a part of me wanted to say yes and close the deal, I glanced over to Liora beside me in a way that almost felt like when I was young and looking to my mom before asking if I could get a honey drop at the sugar dream. 

"What, its your vehicle."

I didn't need anything else as I held my hand forward as I smiled.

"In that case, we would be happy to have you sir?"

"Braedon, my name is Sir Braedon."

The knight said shaking my hand.