Leo tried to take it easy then, he didn't wish to overwork himself but Keith wasn't on his son's side for this, every day he had Leo spar with a hay dummy he had prepared. Leo was still too young to be granted any spells but he could harden his body for the future.
Keith feared for his son, only the legends told of heroes gain such gifts while young but the brighter the light the greater the shadows will be. Keith chose to believed that his young son was fated to live with great hardships regardless of training, this only reinforced his desire to push Leo.
To make Leo strong would take years of more than exercise and all the challenges were stacking up against his family. I thought I would be able to die without seeing war again, I hoped it wouldn't be like when I was his age, terrible times and vile humans.
Over thirty years ago the Alairian Kingdom was going through a famine and civil unrest led to increased crime. Gangs controlled entire neighborhoods and split taxes with the ruling retainers. Attempting to take advantage of the weaknesses strikening the Alairian Kingdom, the Drake Kingdom and its vassal the Tallon Regime invaded.
In that time Drake called themselves the Draken Empire, the war lasted eleven years and a victor was never declared leaving the boarder unofficially drawn. Keith remembered it somberly the gore, the trenches, and the damned machines.
Dad....Dad?.....hey Daaaaaad..KEITH! Leo screamed. Again Keith was zoning out during his practice that he was being forced to do despite his body still stabilizing the mana channels through his body weeks after his event.
"Kitty upset? Leo if you can yell then you can swing, how about you show me your form" Keith picked up his wood practice saber leaning against the fence. "strike me son, no holding up"
raising his practice blade Leo stepped towards Keith slashing down toward from his right to left. Just as soon as he attempted to swing his sword it was flung from his grasp and Keith picked him up by his collar single handedly.
"Fool! I said strike me so strike me!" Keith roared and threw Leo head over heels into the ground sending the breath from his lungs. "Try shit like that again boy and I will bust your head for mocking me"
Fuck he's in one of those moods... Leo scanned around for his blade finding it laying a meter away. Pulling himself off the ground Leo stumbled for it but was yet again sent through the air when his legs were slapped with the weight of a tree branch.
"Son if this were battle you would be dead before the signals went out, I suggest you arm yourself the enemy I charging boy!" Keith kicked up Leo's sword up in one graceful movement sending it into Leo's chest.
"what do you do when you're out manned, out gunned, and there is no way out?" Keith liked asking impossible questions like this, Leo learned his answers were irrelevant and he would always suffer from the distraction.
instead he switched up from a forward assault on the father fortress and circled poking for weaknesses, he found non Keith anticipated every move with a well formed parry Leo narrowly avoided. so he tried to make a feint as if he were to slash overhead again but dropped low to thrust into the right knee.
Keith saw the feint from a mile away but expected him to slash the hip, instead when Leo moved low for the knee Keith stepped back dodging the makeshift attack. Leo then rushed Keith ramming his shoulder into his waist, Keith stumbled slightly to rebalance himself when Leo swung his sword by the blade to hammer Keith onside of his head.
Keith saw the simple solution ramming the leg he stepped back with into Leo's chest, Leo sidestepped the leg and the swung down on the leg. The next thing he realized was the crack of his father's sword on his shoulder sprawling Leo into the dirt.
"That's enough, next time don't forget that I have a sword as well" was yourself and feed the dog, Dinner will be finished by then so you will be finished with your chore." Keith set off towards the shed leaving the exhausted Leo kneeling in the trampled earth.
Why is he so aggressive I'm only five technically, I can't even mark him if I landed a blow. Dusting himself off he set towards the well when Leo pulled the bucket up Zaida was waiting for him "you look like hell."
"Dad is a bastard fighter, he will beat the hell out of me for the slightest mistake" Leo turned to face his older sister. Zaida was now ten years old and starting to turn into a lady. "what do you expect from him, he's the captain of the guard and a war vet" rebuked Zaida.
"War vet? what war he never mentions it" Keith never mentions his past only ever talking about combat in obscure comments or discussing skirmishes with highwaymen. "Mom hardly mentions it but yeah a bad one, she says that he lost his brother in the war"