Kilimor, Chapter 1—Training

Written by Dronin Gammerson

We eyed each other at a distance not neither wishing to initiate the brutal combat that was inevitable. My opponent decided that the wait lasted long enough and hurled himself at me arms outstretched for an arm lock. Although, I was ready for it. Dodging to the left I swept my legs in a fluent and blindingly fast movement that caught my opponent completely off guard. I pushed my advantage with a rapid series of jabs all of which struck home as my opponent stumbled to regain his balance. I backed off as soon as he started to ward off my attacks. The blows I has scored put me at a huge advantage making my opponent's arms painful to move.
Slowly, I advanced. With a slower approach my opponent would need either try a head on collision like the last one or try for a defensive strategy that put me at an advantage. He wisely chose not to lunge in risking another unfavorable outcome and threw a hard right kick. Caught off guard I blocked it with my arm jarring it slightly. Seeing his opportunity my opponent went on the offensive throwing blow after blow. Backpedaling as fast as I could I tried to ward off his blows. This proved difficult at first but than I noticed a pattern. He would throw a hard forward jab with is left hand and then while I was focused on that he would throw a wide hook over and over.
Once I found this pattern I used it to my advantage. Deflecting his forward jab than ducking when he threw his hard hook. Than I came up with my fist just below the chin. This hit had all of my power and upward motion behind it and knocked him out cold.
I walked down from the wrestling floor as doctors checked him out. I knew that he would be fine, that was not a killing blow.
“Congratulations Kilimor!” Said one of the by standards as I walked by. I nodded my head in his direction acknowledging his comment.
“Kilimor,” said a messenger breathlessly, “We just got word that Dronin is leaving to rescue some of his friends on the surface.”
“Thank you,” I said, “Tell him I said good luck.”
“Yes sir,” He said and jogged off.
“Hey Hilkin,” I said grabbing a doctor who was leaving the stadium, “Tell me when Mantock is conscious, will you?”
“Sure Kilimor,” He said and walked off.
I started at a slow pace towards my home. Along the way people were greeting me and telling me of how great a fight that was, and how I was able to counter his every move which was not true. I was unable to effectively block his right kick. The kick would have become a huge advantage for Mantock if I had not learned his strategy and countered it. It did not take long for me to make it to my house. One there, I found my house just the way it always is. Rough and full of various weapons, my bed in the far right corner and a glass reflector to make the light from the Lumistones on the ceiling of the cave shine throughout my house. Every house has one of these and sometimes more than one. As I was thinking about the reflector I heard a light knock on the door.
“Come in,” I said
A guard stepped in to the room, “Sir because Dronin is leaving the King has put you in charge of getting the men ready for battle,” He paused,  “Oh, and good job in the fight.”
“Thanks,” I said.
I had expected to be put in charge of preparing the army as soon as I heard that Dronin was leaving. I just had to wait for the orders. Now that I had received them I decided to check on the men and how their training was going.
It took a lot longer than I had expected to get to the training grounds, but I was rewarded to hear the dull thud of metal on wood repeatedly and from several different areas.
“How is the training going Tormag?” I asked one of the drill instructors.
“They're getting it pretty well,” Tormag responded, “Although I think they would like someone who knows more in this area than me” Tormag was the head trainer with two other trainers who mostly just called time and swings. I would teach the finer points of swordplay.
“I'll look in to it Tormag”, I said and trudged towards the battle grounds. Once I got there many of the soldiers missed a swing looking at me than hastily continued hacking at the dummies. I walked up to someone who was hacking and hitting as hard as he could.
“Your hitting too hard try to ease off a little”, I said, “You don't have to cut them completely in half.”
“Yes sir”, he said and hit with a little less power.
I noticed that some of the swords were made of plain iron rather than the folded thicker metal that we normally used. I walked over to where Tormag was observing.
“Why aren't the swords reinforced iron?” I asked.
“Our shipment of iron are not making it through we think it is being sabotaged by bandits” Tormag replied glumly.
“That is a problem”, I said, “We will have to take care of that in the next time schedule. For now Training is over let the men have some sleep and you get some yourself.”
After that the men put their weapons and gear away and left to their homes and the trainers followed soon after.