After a few more planning, the group started to disperse. Marco and Slade went back to their tent to do their stuff. Even Grylls was affected with the atmosphere and didn't chat with Bradford for the night.
"Well, bollocks. Guess it is just you and me, darkness my old friend. Tonight will be a cold night." Sighed Bradford.
Lara and Silver went back to their usual training spot. "Great of you to share your ability across the team. I won't ask about your secrets but it is always better to have someone to talk to. I, myself only have myself to lean on most of the time, but sometimes I welcome company such as this." She gestured to the camp.
"You mean you and Marco are not a team?" Silver curiously inquired.
"Oh, no. We sometimes bump into one another due to us being an Artifact or Treasure Hunter, similarly as I bump to other colleague of ours. My adventures and his are generally different though, I go where my instinct tells me to go while Marco has been headstrong for the Dagger of Xian ever since I've first met him. This time, I found a clue about the location of the dagger so I contacted him and to join the adventure." Lara explained.
"I see, I'll keep that in mind. Ever since that night I've never had a friend other than Killua, who I chanced upon Heavens
Arena. I had many teacher and instructor along the way but no one I really could open to."
Lara looked at him for a while as she let him gather his thoughts. "Enough about depressing talks. Let's prepare you in tomorrow's possible fight. My first question is, can you fight tomorrow?"
"Huh? What do you mean?" Silver looked at her with a raised brow.
"Sigh... Can you fight Nagas? The last time I asked you to hunt for lunch you seemed hesitant."
"Oh, that... I got my reasons, but I won't drag anyone else tomorrow." Silver promised.
"You better not! Everyone is relying on your performance tomorrow." Lara warned him with a stern voice. "Next, how will you fight tomorrow, do you have a weapon with you? We can't have you enter the fray and leave Grylls unprotected. But you can support us if you know any range weapons."
"I'm a marksman in archery. If you have a bow and some arrows I'll be of help."
"A marksman you say? How the hell do-... Ughh nevermind. Comparing you to a normal 9 years old would be futile and vain." Complained Lara. "Wait here, let me get my bow and arrows."
Lara came back 5 minutes later from her tent with her signature recurve bow. It has a dimension of 15.75" x 55.11" x 3.54". It have a yellow-gold handle in the middle with engravings extending to both of the recurved edges.
"This bow has been with me for a long time. I got it in the hidden city of Paititi when I was tracking the Dagger of-... Chak Chel." Lara paused and her eyes glimmered with seriousness.
"Lara?" -Silver.
"Oh, sorry was caught up by my memories. As I was saying, this bow is very special to me. Although I seldom use it, I still carry it with me on my adventures. I'll let you use it for a while."
She gave the bow without hesitation to Silver and watched him handle it professionaly.
Silver took the bow without a second thought and took a proper stance. He then feel the weigh of the bow's draw to attune himself to it.
It took him a minute to be somewhat familiar of it before asking the quiver from Lara.
Once Silver nocked the arrow Lara knew he wasn't joking about being a marksman. Being a marksman herself, she could immediately tell if Silver was pretending. Silver draw and loosed the arrow. The arrow struck a tree 20 meters away from them.
*swoosh*
"A little off to the right." Silver commented.
Lara stayed silent and watch Silver do his thing.
*swoosh*
"Over compensated."
*swoosh*
"A little more."
*swoosh*
"There we go."
*swoosh*
*swoosh*
*swoosh*
*swoosh*
*swoosh*
Silver watched his work. The arrow alligned itself like a capital letter T on the trunk as he intended after correcting his aim.
*****
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"You are as good as you claim to be. Now let me show you how to use it properly tomorrow." -Lara
"This is awesome! Do it again! Do it again!" Silver excitedly say as he watched with his scarlet eyes under the lenses.
"Let's end it today, I'm exhausted." Lara complained. "No nightime training for you, we need you 100% tomorrow. You may think you are being sneaky, but everyone knows you are training overnight ever since you learned about Nen." Lara tapped Silver's forehead a few times before stoping. She then started walking towards her tent with a serious face. No one knows what she is thinking.
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Extra chapter cause we just learned we will have a son. :)