Elemental Knights

Chapter 5

'I have to make it through training if I want to be able to do anything.'

Ha as if it would be that easy.

Crack!

Casey was sprawled out on the sand of the training ring, his chest heaving up and down. A large bruise forming on his left cheek and his clothes were dusty and in disarray. To his right was the wooden sword he had been using to protect himself only moments before. He hadn't been doing a very good job of it.

"Get up off your arse! We're going again!" A booming voice called from the other side of the ring. This voice belonged to the man who had given him the fresh bruise, Sir Conrad Baro.

"Alright, alright already. I'm getting up." Casey grabbed the training sword and pushed himself up, ignoring the pain emanating from his blistered hands. How many times is this already?

It had already been five days since he had arrived here and training wasn't exactly going smoothly. He enjoyed the riding as he had had experience with riding horses on his aunt's ranch growing up. He also didn't mind the academic side of the training as most of it was at the level of elementary school on Earth. He had been pleasantly surprised to discover that the common writing language here was English. When he spoke to Ronin about it he acted like it was the most natural thing in the world.

The place where training was going anyway but smoothly was the physical and the swordsmanship training. He had thought that he kept himself in good shape before coming here. Unfortunately this was far from the truth as he discovered on the first day exactly what physical training meant to Sir Baro. For the penalty of being late, he had Casey run ten laps around the training ground. A single lap being the equivalent of running one mile.

Finally finishing that, Sir Baro had him join in on the hand-to-hand combat training where he became a human punching bag for the other recruits. Following the hand-to-hand training was the swordsmanship training, and by that time he was exhausted to the point that he could barely even lift the training sword. Sir Baro personally took over Casey's training citing that he was so far behind the other recruits. Casey didn't even last one exchange before ending up on the ground.

Though this harsh training must have been doing something for him because he could now last three or four exchanges with Sir Baro. He figured it was probably the work of his fox clasp. After all, It did have the effect of enhancing his swordsmanship and his riding abilities.

Shaking his head to clear it of unnecessary thoughts, Casey faced Sir Baro and readied his stance. He slowed his breathing and watched Sir Baro's movements. The first thing he had learned the hard way from his instructor was not to be impatient. Slowly circling around Sir Baro, Casey watched for any openings in his stance.

Sir Baro took a slight step back and Casey lunged forward. Seeing this Sir Baro gave a slight smile, one that Casey didn't notice. Casey swung his sword across Sir Baro's body. This was easily parried and Sir Baro countered with a thrust directed at Casey's chest. Casey quickly took a step back to avoid the sword's point.

Casey's form had been broken and Sir Baro was not about to let this opportunity go. He let loose a furious flurry of strikes at Casey who was struggling just to keep his balance. Backpedaling he barely kept Sir Baro's sword from striking any of his vital points. Realizing that if this kept on the way it was going, Casey would end up on the ground again he began desperately looking for a way out. His arms were beginning to burn with the force that Sir Baro was putting into his strikes, he wouldn't be able to keep this up for much longer. 

That's it! His eyes shone with new vigor as he thought of a way to escape his current predicament.

Sir Baro slashed at Casey who swung his sword to meet it. At the same time his sword hit Sir Baro's, he lept back using the force from Sir Baro's blow to separate them. Breathing heavily, he used the extra time to fix his stance.