Daniel stood to the side of the large hall with his arms folded behind him as the teacher of this class introduced himself.
"Call me Gizmo! I am the weapon smith of the Nine Peaks Sect, as well as one of the teachers of practical combat." The bald man with a horizontal scar running over the bridge of his nose introduced himself to the class again for Daniel's sake with a very loud voice.
"I am not the best with a sword, but I know a lot about stances and forms thanks to my line of work. I will teach you all you know about combat forms while you learn under me." He grinned widely.
"Greetings, Teacher Gizmo. I am eager to learn what you have to teach me." Daniel bowed and put his hands together in front of him when Gizmo was done with his introduction.
The bald man only grinned wider as he nodded his head. "Good, now watch and learn."
He then called one of the other students to help him demonstrate. Two wooden swords were provided as well for a proper demonstration.
"You see, when you are about to engage in a fight, a lot can go wrong, depending on how you approach the situation. Normally, every attack produces a flaw. That means whoever attacks first is revealing the flaws in their stance or form to their opponent and taking a risk." Gizmo demonstrated what he meant by moving to attack the student standing on the other side of him.
It seemed the male student was familiar with this action, as he immediately moved to exploit the obvious opening that Gizmo had left for the purpose of teaching. He moved and tapped his wooden sword on Gizmo's shoulder, then his side when Gizmo moved to step back.
"You see what I mean?" Gizmo raised his hand for the student to stop and turned to the rest of the class. "Even the slightest opening can be exploited by an experienced enemy. That is why I take this class, to help you understand how to mitigate these openings and develop better combat forms."
Daniel listened with apt attention as Gizmo explained the various flaws that a swordsman, or any sort of fighter, could expose within battle. He explained how to take advantage of those openings, and also how to avoid them. All of his teachings were accompanied by multiple examples.
Although these teachings would not sink in by the end of the day, that was why they had an entire year to learn from their various teachers.
By the end of the class, everyone left the class with a lot of food for thought. Gizmo did not spend the entire class teaching, but instead put some students against each other in mock fights. Whenever an opening was revealed, he took note of it and addressed it for all to also take note of and improve.
"We have the rest of the day off." Han told Daniel as the two stepped out from the building.
"Yeah, I know. But what do we use the rest of the day for? I can't keep practicing for so long." Daniel sighed.
"Well, we could take up a few missions. As long as we can gather merits, then we should be able to fill up our schedule." Han suggested, and Daniel's eyes brightened.
Previously, when Wendy and Han had taken him for a tour, they had introduced him to the Merit System.
The Nine Peaks Sect was not a static swordschool. In order to allow the students to put what they had learnt to practice, the school had adopted a meritorious system that allowed students to accept missions that took them out of the school to complete tasks.
These tasks were nothing like cutting some grass, or felling a tree. Not at all. The missions all had to do with combat in one way or another!
By completing a mission, the student, or students, that had completed the mission would earn some merits, depending on the specifications and difficulty of the mission. With those merits, they could exchange for perks, better equipment, and other things. They could even skip classes if they earned enough merits!
"Let's find Wendy and go pick a nice mission." Daniel grinned and turned to look for the brown haired beauty, but was stopped in his tracks when Han planted a firm hand on his shoulder.
"Did you see Wendy in class today?" The spiky haired boy asked.
"Um, no?" Daniel replied, tilting his head.
"That means she probably has something important enough to skip class. We should leave her be for now. Perhaps she can follow us next time." Han smirked a bit and turned to walk in the direction of the building where the mission board could be found. Daniel sighed and followed after him, folding his hands at his back and tilting his head from side to side, as if listening to music.
Unknown to the both of them, they were being followed by a duo of trained warriors.
"Is that the boy that the Master told us to tail? He looks quite plain." One man with short brown hair and a mask over the lower half of his face, asked his comrade.
"He might look plain, Angus, but from what I've heard, he's talented. As long as he threatens the Young Master's position and reputation, we must do something about it." The second man, with long grey hair that reached his shoulder blades, replied.
"Aye, Jay." The first man nodded and returned his gaze to Daniel.
"They are heading to the administration building. Perhaps to pick up a mission. We can silence them when they leave the sect." Jay told Angus.
"The other boy too? He's innocent though." Angus was unsure.
"We must silence all witnesses. Have you forgotten our orders? It's the idiot's fault for getting involved with someone who dared to cross the Henarion Clan." Jaw said, his eyes turning into slits and the air around him chilling with frost.
Beside him, a leaf of the tree that they were hidden in suddenly froze, before shattering into pieces.