The cliffside preceded us like an imposing wall, however to our dismay, there was fog around the base of the mountain; our task would be that much harder.
"Let's split up, we'll be able to cover more ground that way. Let's meet here in an hour," Charlie said.
We went separate ways and each of us had a map to keep track of where we were going. The swirling fog engulfed my body as I navigated through it. My eyes kept wandering back to the mountain as it exuded an ominous aura which was intensified by the incessant hoots from owls. An hour flashed by and even though my search was meticulous, I could not find any sign of the crescent-shaped boulders.
At the rendezvous point, everyone except Charlie had the same disheartened expression.
"Did you find it?" I asked.
"As a matter of fact, I did-"
We ecstatically jumped around like fools before even letting him continue his sentence.
"Let's go see it," Adriana said.
"Follow me," Charlie said.
The route we went through was even more arduous and it seemed like the orc had made his own path, but we finally found what we were looking for! Right up against the cliff face were two huge boulders.
"There seems to be some sort of the mechanism in the center of the two rocks," I said.
"Let's go in right now!" Martin said, not being able to contain his excitement.
"No we'll still wait until the third day," Charlie said.
"Why? Don't be such a killjoy."
"Passing the tests will take a while and by the time we'd be done, the others would have woken up and noticed our absence. Let's stick to the plan and come back in the early morning of the third day. We'll have an entire day to go through the evaluations rather than a couple of hours."
"Do we have any idea of what awaits us inside?" I asked.
"It all depends on the owner of the inheritance. Most of the times, you'll have to fight to prove your worth, but some orcs who prioritize knowledge, will implement tests that assess someone's intelligence," Lucas replied.
"Let's go back now," Charlie said.
The trek back to camp was uneventful as everyone was in their own head, thinking about the treasures that they would obtain. I, on the other hand, was thinking about how to get ready for tomorrow; it would not hurt to train a bit before dozing off. As soon as we reached the settlement, the others went straight to their tents while I stayed behind.
Following a short warmup, I began practicing my strikes on the tree trunk; I also implemented slips and feints into my attacks to make them feel as real as possible. There was no point in doing something that would be useless in an actual fight. Sweat dripped down my forehead as the number of repetitions increased; I did not feel ready. Jasper's teachings popped up in my head as the training session progressed.
One of the things that I struggled to comprehend was cutting angles, so I dedicated a good amount of time just for that. Something always felt off when I performed the technique; it did not feel as natural as the other aspects of martial arts.
"Is this your way of sleeping?"
I turned around in shock and was surprised to see the teacher standing behind me with his arms crossed; the way of the wind did not pick up on his movement and he was able to sneak behind me without any issues. How was that even possible? I stumbled over my words and tried to find a good reason to be out so late.
"I could not sleep sir, so I decided to come train instead of wasting my time."
His stern expression changed and he was now beaming.
"Is that so? I saw that you were practicing cutting angles and pivoting."
"Yeah I can't seem to get the hang of it," I said in a disappointed tone.
"Why do you sound so sad? Do you realize how strong you are for your age? Don't beat yourself down over such minor things."
"I can give you some pointers if you'd like," he added.
I had no reason to refuse as more knowledge was always welcomed so after an affirmative nod, he began explaining. His lessons on martial arts were far more entertaining than his regular classes.
"Sine when did you become a good teacher?" I asked.
"You brat-"
"Stop interrupting me," he added.
"As I was saying, the problem lies in the distribution of your weight. Think for example when you want to lunge forwards, more of your weight will be placed on your rear leg and when you want to move backwards, more of your mass will be placed on your front leg. The same concept applies here. You shouldn't only think about the initial movement, but you should also take into consideration the pivot that will come after the step."
My brain was being loaded with information, but thankfully, the teacher guided me and helped me put theory into practice. He also volunteered to be a training dummy and this allowed me to see how effective pivoting was. With each repetition, my technique improved and I was feeling more comfortable with the motion.
"Go to bed now. You'll only have two hours of sleep at best, but at least you won't be a walking corpse."
While struggling for air, I trudged to my tent and thumped the ground. I could not bear with the exhaustion and was straight away in the hands of Morpheus.
My body was shaking so much that it felt like I was in the middle of an earthquake; my eyes opened spontaneously as I jumped up. Lucas was standing before me and wore the most devious smile that I had ever seen.
"I was just trying to gently wake you up," he said.
"Our definitions of gently do not match."