Dungeon Prowler : One Man Army

Chapter 8: dancing

Last night was very eventful for Bai, since monsters were moving in to fill the newly emptied land, although he got some shut eye in the small hours of the morning until sunrise. He was somewhat rested yet he still yawned now and them on his way to meet his charge. According to the schedule prepared by Yunan today was strategy and footwork. Yesterday he had a headache from all the ideas Leader stuffed in his brain on how to handle these two classes, one was basically chess, and the other was glorified dancing.

When Bai reached the library and found Yunan he said with a yawn " follow" and motioned with his hand to make Yunan hurry and follow. Outside the library, Bai led the way to the entertainment hall, a big hall around 400 square meters filled with tables of all variety, tables for 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 people, it also sported some games for the students to pass time, there were cards games, board games, dice games as well as puzzles and mazes. Bai chose a table for two and ordered a chess game and a scoring sheet.

"Do you know how to play chess?" instructor Bai asked as he set up the white pieces on the board, Yunan also picked up the black pieces and began setting them up. "Yes, i learned it when i was 7" said Yunan still not understanding the point. "That makes things easier, then, we play an ordinary chess games but with a promotion system. In the first game, all pieces are level 1, once you win a game all your pieces become level 2, if you lose a game all piece restart to level 1. Next, level 1 units take only one hit to be removed from play, level 2 units require 2 hits by level 1 units to be removed from play, and 1 hit from equal or higher level units". He glanced at yunan and questioned " understand so far?" Yunan thought for a moment before answering "higher level units need only one attack to remove lower or equal leveled units from play" Bai nodded and continued the explanation "however, a level 1 unit needs 2 attacks to remove a level 2 unit, a level 2 units needs 2 attacks to remove a level 3 from play, while a level 1 unit needs 4 attacks to remove a level 3 units from play and so on. The player who reaches 3 levels higher than the other wins the set, and the levels are reset to level 1 for both players, in case of a draw both players keep their current level, also, a tie with a higher level opponent does not grant promotion, and a draw with a lower level opponent does not demote the player, also no matter how high leveled is your opponent you only get one promotion per win. got it ?".

Yunan nodded in affirmation and took a coin to flip for first move "call it" he told Bai as he flipped the coin "heads" Bai said and caught the coin, revealing tails, the board was changed and Yunan had the white pieces and the first move. They played game after game and set after set, and yunan lost all of them, Bai was being a bit too cruel playing seriously, with a 10 year old who barely can formulate a strategy, and by the time the bell rang indicating the end of the morning class Yunan had a very ugly expression, today he learned the true meaning of being toyed with in both literal and metaphorical senses.

Once the class ended instructor Bai left Yunan with a few words to think about " strategy is about planning both your moves and your opponents moves. Think about how to conduct your turn and force me to play the moves that best serve your plan, a good strategist can make you dance in the palm of his hand, so think about both your turn and mine" with that Bai left the entertainment hall and before he was too far he shouted at Yunan "don't bring armor to hall 5".

Yunan just walked to the cantina like a zombie and met Leol on the way, once he shared the crushing defeats Bai dealt him, Leol patted Yunan on the back and said with cheerless tone "well at least there is no danger from the afternoon class, since he said not to bring armor with you, hopefully it won't be too embarrassing, either". hearing that Yunan felt even more indignation. The two found an available spot and sat to eat their lunch, while Leol shared his extremity mundane and borderline boring time, the teacher barely said a thing and most of his classmates just chanted in pairs and threes and were blissfully ignorant that Leol was about to start tapping a strange beat to mess up their chanting.

Once the afternoon class started Bai came into the training hall with an older woman beside him, as they drew close to yunan, Bai made introductions for them he gestured at yunan " Yunan the runt" then gestured at the older lady "Leader, she will be your partner today". They exchanged a "nice to meet you" and a "looking forward to working with you" while Yunan kept glaring at his instructor Bai as if daring him to say runt one more time.

Once the glares calmed down a bit, Bai asked Yunan if he knew how to dance, Yunan shyly shook his head, then Bai started class with a clap " Now both of you stand near each other, leave a space of a meter between you two" As they got into position Bai continued the instructions " Yunan you must focus on Leader only and mirror her moves, Leader follow my words, i will give a direction and you will take a step in that direction, again, Yunan mirror her moves, do not follow my words"

As the partners nodded Bai started with his instruction " right.left.up.left..down...right." occasionally a slap would resonate in the hall followed by a giggle whenever Yunan made the mistake of following the instruction of Bai instead of mirroring leader. Bai would slap the back of his head every time he made a mistake, or executed the move too late, soon the slaps changed into thuds as Bai would trip Yunan occasionally after he stopped making too many mistakes.

All throughout the afternoon the sound of thuds followed by giggles every now and then was coming out of hall number 5, and every now and then the childish voice of a child complaining about some lazy evil maniac and bickering with a grown man who kept pointing out "life is not fair" all to the delighted laughter of a female who seemed to enjoy a very entertaining performance.

After class the lady said her goodbyes and see-you-laters and went away with instructor Bai, while Yunan went to his room to complain about the hellish dancing lesson he got and how he was humiliated over and over, this time Leol voluntarily asked to join the dancing class even if it meant infinite slaps and thuds were awaiting him in the future, his own words were "no matter what it is always worth it to learn how to dance".

While they were discussing what could be taught in the general knowledge lesson, they avoided talking about the true torture of the final week day, dodge and reaction class, maybe they were stepping around the subject since both of them knew very well how Bai would retaliate against Yunan in that class. Since Leol had decided to never attend a physical class after the chanting class, just imagining the amount of bruising they needed to nurse during the weekend made them reluctant to even think about it let alone bring it up and talk about it up.