First thing in the morning, Kane quietly left his room to avoid waking his roommates, who wouldn't start training until an hour later. Tutor Horen, waiting in the training area, presented him with all the exercises.
"We don't have some advanced equipment here, so we're using traditional solutions. I have prepared a load for you, which you will attach with a cord to your arms and legs, and you will do the exercises wearing them, if you want even better results, it's best if you continue to wear them throughout the day after your morning exercises, and add weight every few days.
As for the exercises, you're a knight, so we'll only exercise the parts of your body that you use in battle, so I'll give you weighted barbells and you'll do the strikes. And for a whole hour until 8 in the morning, you'll practice, then join the rest, and possibly, if you want, you can still practice after supper before we put the equipment away."
"Okay, then I'll start."
The exercises were no different from the ones he'd been doing so far, but because of the extra weight Kane had distributed throughout his body, they were even more difficult to perform but also more effective.
Just as tutor Horen had recommended, he didn't take the load off after 8 a.m., and he planned to go with it all day for both exercise and running, not taking the load off even at breakfast, which he was just heading to.
"Eeehh, I can't stand it, they didn't take me to the second stance again."
A nervous Collin began to complain
"And did you ask tutor Nilon why?"
Asked Daren, himself also not getting into the second stance.
"I haven't asked, maybe I'll try later."
"Everything hurts me since I came here..."
Tears began to come to Auren's eyes from fatigue and stress, slowly ate breakfast, longing for home-cooked food.
"I'm doing poorly in this group from the second stance so far, but I know what to do to improve. Did you guys learn anything at all about Ren?"
"We didn't ask."
"Ehh, only Jin knew something more so far, but he didn't tell me anything..."
"Why?"
"We had a bet that if I won at least one duel with him, he would tell me everything, but you know how that turned out."
Sighs a resigned Kane as tutor Horen calls out to him.
"Kane! Go help set up the exercise equipment."
"Yes, sir!"
He shouted in the tutor's direction, saluting and leaving the dining hall.
The boy met his roommates just at lunch after all the exercises.
"Finally, there will be sparring, I'm already looking forward to it, I'll try to win as much as I can, and then maybe tutor Nilon will let me move to the group from the second stance."
Expressed his hopes, Collin
"Kane, will you try to go to the third stance today, or is that impossible for you yet?"
Asked Daren, curious about the boy's plans.
"Hmmm..."
Kane wondered before answering while staring at his meal, wondering in what situation he would have the chance to do so.
"Tutor Lorenz said I'd have to block all strikes in three duels in a row, no matter what opponent from my group I come up with, it's more likely to be difficult today."
"How hard is it there?"
"I've only just started to catch up to the rest of the group, and nobody randomly got into the group, so I won't get to anyone who hasn't learned the first stance, so I won't block 15 strikes in a row."
Suddenly, Collin stood up with excitement and leaned over the table toward Kane
"And me! Do you think I could do it?"
"I don't know how you fight."
He looked at Collin as if he were an idiot for asking such questions.
"Right..."
He sat in silence, finishing his food, as the time for fencing training and sparring approached.
Kane, leaving for the training ground after lunch, met tutor Horen who had information for him regarding today's sparring.
"As I said, I'll be assigning you someone similar in physical strength to you, so today you'll be fighting Landis, as far as I know, you've already sparred with him before?"
"Yes, I have fought still with tutor Nilon with him".
"Well, then you know each other, go to your stance and start the repetitions, don't forget the load on."
"Yes sir"
Saluted Kane
During the repetitions, both of the first and second stances, he kept wandering thoughts about what might happen in sparring.
"Do I have a chance to get to the third stance now that I'm fighting Landis?"
"Last time, the second stance didn't work on him."
"Since Landis is familiar with Jin, maybe he knows something about Ren?"
There were more and more questions in the boy's head until it was time for sparring. Just as tutor Horen mentioned, Kane fought Landis again.
"Hi, we see each other again."
"Hi"
"I saw that you already fought Jin, strong, right?"
Laughed the boy, mentioning his friend
"Do you know him?"
"I'm in a room with him, why?"
"That explains a lot."
"Yeah, Jin has talent and skill, but for some reason, he probably mentioned his father."
"He said he was a Master"
"Yes, but when I tried to find out something about Ren, he wouldn't answer me."
"You too?"
"Yeah, as far as I know, he didn't say anything to anyone."
"Do you know why?"
"No, he just doesn't tell anyone anything about it, then should we start with sparring?"
"Okay."
Kane took off from his body all the weight he had been carrying all day and, grabbing his sword, felt that this was an opportunity to move on to the third stance and, in the process of learning it, make up for his physical strength for the other recruits. He had fought Landis before and knew it was possible to block 15 strikes in a row.
Hoping to seize the opportunity, he didn't rush, knowing that if he lost patience, he would lose his chance.
"I will attack first."
Said Kane, wanting to prepare to defend himself, knowing that after the attack his senses would sharpen, and he would have a better chance of achieving his goal in defense, while checking how much Landis' skills had improved.
The two boys set up in stance, Landis waiting for Kane to attack, and Kane waiting for the right moment to attack.
They stared at each other in silence, as still as stone monuments, without a twitch of an eyelid or hand.
Kane knew that his hands lacked strength and speed, so he decided to use his whole body to attack, ignoring tutor Nilon's recommendations on how to perform the first stance.
Instead of keeping his feet steady on the ground, with his right leg extended forward, and using the strength of his arms to attack. Kane, took a quick step forward with his right leg and, at the same time, attacked with his sword. Thanks to the movement of the whole body and the sword at the same time, the speed of the attack was increased twice, so much so that
"Ouch!"
He shouted in pain, falling to the ground. He looked at Kane, grabbing his sore shoulder.
"I see you've improved."
"Now I've made it up."
"You've always had a talent for improvising."
Laughed Landis
"I see those eyes, Kane, they are no longer empty like the first day, but full of determination. You want to get into the third stance today, don't you?"
"Yes, and I don't plan on you keeping me from it."
Both boys heard heavy footsteps in their direction, it was tutor Horen.
"Are you okay?"
"I'm fine, I'm fine."
"Good, then you can continue to fight".
Tutor Horen, while looking at Kane, saw in the boy what he never wanted to see in someone his age - Determination to achieve his goal at all costs. Seeing this, he walked away from the two recruits without a word, hoping not to lose himself in the pursuit of his goal.
Landis, seeing Kane suddenly change his behavior after winning, as if he was eager to win as soon as possible, as if he didn't have time to wait out of impatience, felt shivers of fear go through him.
Landis was unable to describe it, looking at the boy, he had the impression that he was slowly losing his humanity.
"Kane... Are you okay?"
The boy slowly looked at Landis with a menacing gaze, as if he saw a ghoul looking at its prey.
"Now you're defending."
Landis said, forcing a fake smile on his face, hiding his fear behind it.
Kane took the second stance in silence and concentration, not taking his eyes off his opponent, as Landis, who was still shivering, slowly took the first stance.
Through a sore shoulder, and fear of Kane, he attacked recklessly and slowly, causing no problems in deflecting the attack for Kane.
"I got the first deflection, 14 more."
The boy, without saying a word or showing any emotions, pain, happiness, fear, or satisfaction, with a blank stare like a boundless sky devoid of stars, stared at Landis, again and again deflecting all his attacks without flinching, gaining the attention of the tutors, thinking they were seeing a future member of the third stance group.
"You deflected them all, congratulations."
Landis fearfully tried to soften the boy's attitude, praising him so that he wouldn't hurt him during the sparring.
"Go to stance".
Kane looked at him with horror. The boy's heart was beating faster and faster out of stress, and the boy felt anxious, from not being able to beat Landis, the only glimmer of hope to leave this group.
Landis let out a tear and clenched his teeth, wanting to get the fight over with.
"If I manage to hit his right shoulder, it will be even easier for me to defend."
Kane thought, unconsciously throwing away his pride for the sake of victory. The problem with his plan was that his right shoulder would be shielded by the sword first, so he decided to use Landis' method from their previous sparring, as he was still with tutor Nilon.
Kane specifically took advantage of his opponent's condition. He stomped hard to create a sudden noise and made a slow swing to create anxiety in his shaken opponent and give him time to try to deflect. Thanks to the stimulus of fear and sound, Landis made a rash decision, swinging the sword in front of Kane with his eyes closed.
Kane was waiting for just this opportunity, and as soon as his opponent's sword made a full swing, he immediately attacked with all his strength in his right shoulder.
Landis screamed in pain, but through the fuss of sparring with other recruits, none of the tutors heard the cry of suffering.
Aware that everything was going according to plan, Kane's anxiety began to leave him, and, ignoring the pain and condition of his opponent, he set up in a second stance, taking a deep breath to calm his nerves.
"Attack."
He said this to Landis, who still didn't know what was happening, and tried to pull himself together.
"ATTACK!"
He shouted furiously, out of impatience, to end the sparring as soon as possible.
Despite his focus, Kane felt constant anxiety and stress, his heart was beating like crazy, all because, while he had finally found his purpose in life, his future with it was uncertain.
The tutors began watching the clash between the two boys with curiosity when they heard Kane's screams. Some of the recruits stopped their fighting and looked in their direction to see what was going on.
Landis, out of fear and with shaky hands, was striking weakly and carelessly, shedding more and more tears from his eyes as he watched Kane deflect each of his attacks with Stoic calm and blank stare.
Until Kane deflected all five attacks in this duel, he slowly got up from his stance, with sweat drops running down his forehead from exhaustion, and steam from deep breaths coming out of his mouth.
As Kane moved to an attack stance, finally the boys duel saw the tutor Nilon, seeing the state of Landis, furiously shouted to the whole square.
"KANE STOP THE DUEL IMMEDIATELY! THAT'S AN ORDER!"
Everyone on the training ground momentarily went through chills and fear. They interrupted their duels, looking at the enraged tutor, Nilon walking towards Kane.
"Landis you're free to go, and your Kane will get a new opponent."
The boy snarled under his breath, knowing that he had probably lost his chances of getting into the third stance, which only further enraged Nilon.
"Do you have anything to say?!"
"No."
He looked away from the tutor, annoyed by his intervention.
Happy Landis, feeling as if tutor Nilon had saved his life, with tears in his eyes, threw down his sword and ran to his room.
Both the tutors, who had not seen such an angry Nilon for a long time, and the recruits on the training ground watched the whole situation in silence and curiosity.
"You're supposed to practice swordsmanship here, not beat the crap out of others!"
" I was practicing the second stance."
Without a hint of showing emotion, he replied, seeing no problem in the fact that he had traumatized Landis.
"Horen! Assign him a new opponent!"
He shouted to the tutor, departing back to his group.
"Oi, everyone, to your sparring matches! What are you looking at!"
Tutor Horen admonished the recruits for walking over to Kane.
"Well, you made a fuss..."
He sighed, looking at the boy
"I saw that you've already blocked 10 attacks, admittedly, looking at the technique, it can hardly be called an attack, but I can't just not give you credit for it. I'll give you someone strong, but to give you a chance if you have learned the technique properly."
"Okay."
He replied, hiding his concern.
"I beg not Jin."
Kane thought in his mind, knowing that his chances were diminishing more and more.
Tutor Horen was looking around at the recruits in his group, wondering who to choose, when he finally called out.
"Marko! Come here!"
Hearing the boy's unfamiliar name, he sighed in relief.
He saw a boy silhouetted like Daren walking toward him. Seeing him, he knew it wouldn't be easy but that it was possible.
"This is Marko, he will be your opponent for the next duel, where you will be on defense. All clear?"
Kane took a moment to think about it and said that if he was going to risk fighting against a stranger, he needed to prepare.
"Can we fight two duels? The first I'll be on offense and the second on defense."
"If you want, you can do it that way, it makes no difference to me."
"Then I'll start with the attack."
Kane, attacking first, wanted to specifically attack Marko's sword to test his strength.
The two recruits moved to their respective stances, with the entire duel being supervised by tutor Horen.
The boy, knowing that he did not need this victory but only information about his opponent, decided to forget about speed or technique and use his full strength.
Kane positioned himself in the first stance, grabbing the sword with all his strength, and making a single, powerful strike.
Marko was able to hit Kane's sword, but did not deflect it, there was a clash of blades. Kane seized the opportunity and pressed with all his strength. Marko, although he was able to stop Kane's sword from hitting his body, could do nothing in this position except defend himself.
"Kane, retract the sword, you have four strikes left."
Tutor Horen reminded the boy about the rules of sparring.
"He didn't deflect my sword, and on top of that, he wasn't able to repel the pressure, most likely, in a normal clash, he would have pressed harder than me, but he wouldn't have been able to beat me....
Hmmm... Okay, I guess that's enough, with further attacks, I will tire myself out more than him."
In his mind, Kane analyzed the clash, drawing the conclusions and information he needed.
"That's enough for me, I can move on to defense."
Tutor Horen looked at Kane with surprise.
"But you still have four strikes left."
"I know what I needed, I can move on to defense".
Horen understood why Kane wanted to start with the attack, and with a slight smile, he agreed to switch sides.
"Okay, set up in the second stance".
Again, the boy's attitude from the duel with Landis was evident as soon as he switched to defense. Focus and a lust to win at all costs, along with eyes staring straight at his opponent without blinking.
Marko, positioning himself in the first stance, saw Kane feel as if he were fighting an animal, a slight shiver went through him, and without a second thought, he attacked.
Kane reacted without a moment's hesitation, not making the same mistake as in the fight with Jin.
With a quick swing, he deflected the opponent's attack, and although the impact was not strong, it was still enough to stop the attack.
Without taking his eyes off his opponent, Kane positioned himself back in the second stance, staring at Marko like a lion at its prey, patiently and effectively.
Although Kane hadn't gained any strength over the past few days of training, his hands had managed to get used to the sword and strikes, so he was able to effectively execute stances with it.
"You have four attacks left to block."
Marko, after hearing tutor Horen, attacked again, this time with speed rather than force.
Kane again deflected the attack even more easily than before, clashing his sword into the very center of his opponent's blade, beginning to understand that strength, not speed, is the most important thing in the first stance.
From the force of the strike, Marko had to shift his sword to his left hand and shake out his right hand, where he lost feeling for a few moments from the impact.
"3 attacks."
Horen counted down.
When the surrounding recruits heard the tutor's countdown, they again, despite their earlier admonition, stopped fighting and began watching Kane.
Jin looked around the training ground with surprise, wondering where the commotion among everyone was coming from. He walked closer to all the commotion, where he saw Kane fighting. Only after hearing the countdown did he realize that he was close to getting into the third stance.
After seeing this Jin's sudden excitement passed, he bared a smile, watching the duel.
More and more onlookers began to approach the duel, eager to see if he could get to the third stance first.
Isolated from the world, Kane focused only on his own breathing and his opponent's sword, anticipating the attack.
"Since speed didn't do anything, now strength."
Marko thought, planning how to defeat Kane before getting into the third stance.
He tensed his muscles, which drew Kane's attention, saw Marko's muscular arms and felt that this time the attack would be stronger. He decided to support his deflection with his whole body to make up for the difference in strength.
Kane corrected his stance to make it easier for him to turn his body during the attack.
The entire duel was also watched by the tutors, who saw the boy's talent.
Marko directed the sword at Kane with a firm strike, to which he responded by making a swing with the sword, his whole body including the sword, causing the blades to clash.
He barely managed to stop the attack, and although the deflection failed, he was still able to block the strike. Marko pressed against the boy as Kane clenched his teeth and, with all his strength, in an uncomfortable position through the rotation of his body, tried to stop the attack until the tutor stopped him.
"That's enough, Marko, retract the sword. Kane, you have 2 attacks left to block."
Among the crowd watching, one could hear the sounds of excitement and conversation after each blocked attack. On the sidelines, unobtrusively, the duel was watched by recruits considered talents of the academy.
Marko wasted his penultimate attack to no avail due to Kane's successful deflection by hitting the tip of his sword.
"One more! One more! One more!"
The crowd of recruits began to shout, cheering.
"It's been a long time since it's been so lively here."
"True, I think the last time it was this loud was when the first recruit took the knight's test."
The tutors laughed, looking at all the commotion.
Kane was focused to the point that he didn't hear the recruits' cheers, he fell into a trance, seeing only the sword, hearing a muffled sound, as if it were lying deep underwater.
The shouts and cheers began to quiet down, and everyone stared at the sword, waiting to attack.
Marko was upset that he didn't hit once against the inferior and weaker, Kane, who attacked one last time.
Kane reacted by again aiming at the tip of the sword to deflect the attack more effectively.
The two blades moved closer together. The empty sound of wooden swords clashing echoed throughout the training ground.
The crowd gathered still stared in silence for a moment before suddenly resuming with a shout of excitement.
A wooden sword lay on the ground.
In front of it stood two recruits, Marko and Kane, with the wooden sword in their hands. The heartbroken Marko did not know how it could have happened that he had lost to Kane.
Everyone started shouting, looking at the first recruit who managed to get to the third stance.
But some began to notice that Kane continued to stand in the second stance, staring at Marko. Out of surprise and lack of understanding, the screams quieted down. Tutor Horen, not knowing what was going on, approached the boy and grabbed him by the arm.
"Kane? It's over, you passed."
Only after feeling the tutor's touch did the boy come out of his fighting trance and come back to his senses, looking at Marko and then looking around, noticing the other recruits. Realizing he had finished the fight.
"I passed?"
"Yes, starting tomorrow, you start the third stance."
The boy sighed in relief, shaking off all the stress and anxiety, knowing that now he could focus on exercising his body.
Taking one last look at the crowd of recruits scattering to their destinations, Kane proud of himself, headed toward the dormitory.