Teluna and I had snuck out of the tower, taking advantage of the crowd of people leaving to slip away into the darkness. We did not have a definite direction that we were heading too, the only thing I had to go on was a general direction. About five to 30 kilometers north from my tower, the blue district came to an end.
The blue light that suffused the entire district comes to a stop, forming a natural barrier of light that prevents the monsters on the other side from coming in. According to the information I got form Xaseah, Asha and Asare, as soon as I step past that barrier of light, then I'm in no man's land, the lowest leveled monster around has to be the stone rats, but even then, those critters were a meter long, and had the entirety of their backs, from snout to the tip of their tail covered in a sediment rocky armor. Killing them would require a significant amount of force on my part since smashing them to death would be the easiest way for me to kill them.
But I had more problems to worry about, and that was about how I would be able to transport the monsters body back to the tower, but I think that's also where Teluna comes in, the young vampire was just as he said, more than ten times stronger than me, and we had sufficient materials around to make a sort of sledge that the corpses would be pilled on.
"How long do you think it will take us to get there?" Teluna asked after we were a distance away from the tower.
"I don't really know, this is the first time I'm heading out of the district and into the deepest part of the pit." I answered.
"It will be dangerous."
"Yes Teluna that's a known fact." I answered with a raised eyebrow.
"Be careful." And then he kept quiet, diffusing our surroundings into a silence that was extremely uncomfortable.
To be honest Teluna made me nervous, the kid never said much, and most of the time you could hardly see any sort of emotion on his face. He was like a door, and you would never be able to know what's inside unless he opened it and met you in himself. I felt as if I was not doing enough to reach out and connect with him, but I somehow understood that his was just how he was.
Most people just have a natural disposition to be that silent, he was quiet, never said more than he had too, and focused. Of all the people I know, I could never really tell what Teluna was thinking, it drive me insane, because technically this boy was only about ten years old. But he was so mature every conversation we end up having is always pretty awkward.
But since he was not saying anything, and I really didn't know how to start a conversation with him, I just busied myself with admiring the scenery. There's a rock over there, oh! Look another rock. And that's a tower, it's still the same tower, and then another one, and another.
At this point my feet were already beginning to hurt, and my brain would melt if I count another tower again. It was a long and boring trek, and it was awkward to say the least. The pit was like a maze, and event though the tracks used by the rail car extends to this point, I've not seen the rail car go by.
My tower was the last tower habitable tower for a very significant amount of space, so basically there was no reason for the rail car to find its way back here, to a place where there was nothing but death and silence.
Because of the towers, the pit was a veritable maze, without some sort of compass or map you would definitely get lost, but I felt that even with that you would still get lost, there was no way to differentiate one tower from the other.
I was only relying on the bats flying above me, and this strange connection I felt to not just the tower, but to Asha and Xaseah to get back home. The bond with them served as some sort of internal GPS for me, if I wanted to find them, I just had to let my gut lead me back into their arms.
But this was frustrating, if I count one more tower or rock, I was going to loose my mind.
I looked at Teluna as he shoulder a bag that was half his size if not a little more and quite large too. He had no intention of talking as he marched forward with a focused gaze, I shifted my eyes to the pack, and saw a gleaming hilt sticking out of the side. I shook my head as I unceremoniously pulled the short sword that had somehow not torn a hole in the pack. Oh! Look, it was in a sheath.
"What are you doing?" Teluna asked with his eyebrows scrunched up a bit In confusion.
"Training, duh" I answered as I shrugged my shoulders.
"Very well." He answered back.
Damn this kid, couldn't he show more than just a cursory interest in things, this was creeping me out. I looked at the sword in my hand and squeezed my hand around it's handle as tight as I could. But it felt wrong to my hand, off balance you might say. I loosened my grip on the sword, but still held it tight enough that it wouldn't fall out of my hand.
Then I gave a cursory vertical slash, then followed by a horizontal slash. I kept making those two slashes, until I suddenly changed my stance and pulled the sword until the hilt was touching my chest, turning my hand upside down so that it looks like the sword was flat on it's side, then I bent down a bit, lowering my center of gravity. Gathering power from my calves, I shot forward and pierced the imaginary head of an imaginary enemy.
I felt the sword move with such ease as if this was a move I had practiced a million times before, then I pulled the sword back, bringing the hilt close to my chest again and took a step forward, and stabbed out really fast, two times in succession alternating between the head of my imaginary enemy and his face. I tried to make the stabs more than two, but I just couldn't push my body past that threshold as I felt my muscles pull in protest.
"You know how to use a sword." Teluna stated in a matter of fact tone.
"What!.....no I don't,.....I've never....."
It was then I remembered something Asare had once said to me. He had told me that I was one of the best fighters he had ever seen, and that my mind may have forgotten, but my body would remember. This was muscle memory, something that I had practiced so much that it had become a part of me, like breathing.
But even if my body remembers it did not mean that I knew how to use a sword, in fact my body remembering would be nothing more than a hindrance for me, because my mind might want to do something, and my body might do something different, like it had s mind of its own. The only other option would be to train my body from scratch again, if my mind learns, then in retrospect so would the body, and as for the things the body had learnt before, the process of relearning how to fight would probably teach the mind how to perform that way. A mutual learning experience.
"Teluna can we take a break?" I asked.
"We've only been moving for three hours, that's not nearly enough time to be tired." He answered with a cool voice.
"I just need to check something" I answered back with critter teeth.
This kid is annoying. We picked a tower to lay our backs against and take a rest, but I really did want to check something. Even though Teluna was carrying the huge pack, I also had a tiny leather bag of my own, and all the books Asare had gotten me were in there.
[BASIC STUDY OF THE SWORD, AND THE GUIDE TO CREATING YOUR OWN STYLE.]
CHAPTER ONE:
[The sword is the most versatile weapon in existence. But it is also a difficult weapon to master. Contrary to popular beliefs of the spear being the weapon hardest to understand and control, that's a bold face lie. The spear is a rigid weapon, its abilities finite, it's versatility finite and not meant for every unsavory situation you find yourself in. Growth with a spear has an end.
But a sword is unpredictable, flexible, strong and the first weapon to come into existence. To understand the sword, you must understand yourself. Because in the end the sword is a tool and can only move as it's master commands, your personality, mentality and conviction decides and directs the movement of your sword.
When you have understood yourself, then you would achieve the realm of sword mind, integrating your essence into you sword and giving it the ability to cut through all obstacles. The sword realms are as follows, sword mind, sword heart, sword soul, sword being. And collectively all this realms are known as the realms of sword intent.]
Its obvious the person who wrote this book had a lot of biased love for the sword, and an deep hate for the spear. I couldn't say exactly how that made me feel, but I was no longer eager to hold a spear for any reason whatsoever. I kept reading about the realms of sword intent before I came to chapter two.
CHAPTER TWO:
[Every skill of swordsmanship is divide into three basic forms or moves. Each of this forms or moves have sub moves or underlying auxiliaries that complement it. The three basic sword moves are [SLASH], [PIERCE], [PARRY]. Every sword move, style or skill in existence is born from these three basic forms. In time they will also serve as the template for the creation of your own sword style.
But every swordsman knows that it's not just the move alone that matters, but also the body of the swordsman. Stances and forms are required for maximum efficiency, damage, and speed. As such the three sword moves are paired with three body stances. SLASH with COUNTER, PIERCE with ATTACK, and PARRY with DEFENSE. Due to the versatile nature of the sword, the three body stances can be interchanged with between the three sword forms. Below are illustrations for the basic body stances and their corresponding sword forms. Practice.]
The illustrations looks easy enough, so I got up to give it a try...….I was wrong, while it's easy when you look at it from the page of a book, the same doesn't hold true when you actually attempt it. A lot of things were being outlined in the illustration, and the main thing was the position of the body and the limbs, the stance has to be perfect to get the maximum effect from the sword forms.
If you're slashing at an enemy with properly angling your body, then the your sword would loose traction, speed, and most especially power.
The sword is a balance weapon equally reliant on speed and strength. The proper position would help the swordsman utilize both, with the least amount of effort. All in all, I only knew one thing, I had my work cut out for me, which makes me winder if I should have just left that sword alone, I already had so much to do, yet I had just went ahead and added something else to the pile.