The Elder Lands

Chapter 8

Lucan’s foot twisted into the dirt as he landed after a side leap. He rebalanced himself and hopped back into the center of his imagined star.

The difficulty of this imaginary skill was mainly in the instructed necessity of doing side and back leaps without turning, making them nearly instant.

Lucan had been doing this for a long time, however, and he’d begun to adapt to the athletic commitment needed. The book said that one had to leap to each point of the star once and return to the middle of the star as many times as they wished. So Lucan took to hopping between the points and the middle, and sometimes leaping between the points themselves directly.

After another round of hopping within the star, an amused voice spoke up behind him. “If you’re suffering from so much boredom that you’d make a fool of yourself, let me keep you company.”

Lucan let out a long-suffering sigh and turned around. “Winton,” he said. “What is it you want?”

Standing there, Winton leaned with his forearm on his sheathed sword. “You have received your Blessing, yes?” He didn’t wait for an answer. “And you seem to be keen on training your…flexibility,” he said, sorting a laugh. “Why don’t we test that training? A friendly spar.”

“A spar?” Lucan asked, incredulous.

“Yes, your father is supposed to be a great warrior. Let’s see if you’ve taken to his craft.”

Lucan winced. If his cousin was looking for the weakest spot to prod him, that was it, at least at the moment. Lucan wasn’t at all confident in his fighting skills. “I’m not certain it would be wise–”

“Nonsense!” Winton waved his worries away with a confident smile, untying his sheathe from his belt. “Come, it will be a friendly one.”

Lucan sighed, wondering if he could avoid the fight without sounding too frightened. Then he thought better of it. Winton already thought so little of their family and of him. To give him more arrows to loose at him would be foolish. So he decided to head for the training weapons rack.

“Where are you going?” Winton asked.

“I will bring the training weapons.”

Winton chuckled, loudly. “Fear not, I will not hurt you, little cousin. It will be a fight to subdual. Bring your real sword.”

Lucan stopped. “That would be dangerous,” he said, trying to ignore the ridicule in the title he was given.

“There’s no harm in a little thrill,” Winton said. “I’m no fool. I know how to master my blade. Are you a fool, little cousin?”

Lucan grit his teeth. “You’re not that much older than me. And no, I’m not a fool.” He turned around and walked towards a wooden bench upon which leaned his sheathed sword.

He unsheathed its gleaming bronze blade, eying the enchanting runes engraved into it.

“Quaint,” Winton’s voice echoed in their corner of the courtyard. He drew his own weapon and Lucan’s eyes widened. It was made of enchanted Goldsteel, like his father’s. “It was a gift from my father for my Blessing day. Did your father not get you anything?”

“He did,” Lucan said, eying his own sword dubiously. Surprisingly, his second cousin said what was on his mind, even if rather offensively.

“I suppose you cannot afford so much,” Winton said, his eyes surveying what he, no doubt, considered a shoddy courtyard. “Come, let’s begin.”

Lucan nodded, stepping forward to stand opposite his opponent, his guard up.

Winton stepped forward, aggressively swinging his sword in a diagonal slash.

Lucan parried it and felt his muscles strain from taking the strike. How enhanced was his second cousin’s Physique? He didn’t have much time to think about it. Another slash came from the other side as Winton used the momentum of his rebounding sword to swing it around for a different strike.

Lucan put all his weight in strong parry, stepping forward for a thrusting riposte, but his cousin recovered quickly, mirroring his movement with a step back while bringing his sword back for a rigid block.

Lucan tried to keep his advantage by pressing the attack, but his next strike was pushed aside with a firm parry. Then Winton came at him with a flurry of light slashes. There was almost no strength behind them, but Lucan was forced to block them or let them reach him and lose the fight. Soon he found himself on the back foot, losing more and more ground to keep up with the flurry of quick strikes. Winton suddenly changed the rhythm of his attacks, going for slow, deliberate strikes that carried more strength, forcing Lucan to adapt.

“Come on, little cousin,” Winton shouted between strikes. “Are you not supposed to become a knight? That can’t be all your father taught you.”

Lucan strained to match his second cousin, and his patience was rewarded when a parry resulted in a moment’s delay from his opponent. He lunged for a decisive strike, only realizing that Winton’s delay was a trick after he’d committed. His cousin’s blade was coming in from his side, faster than his own would reach Winton. Alarm sprung into Lucan’s heart as he realized that he’d fallen for a childish trap and was about to lose to this idiot. An instinct took hold of him for a brief moment. Leap to the point.

Lucan’s feet reacted before his mind could, taking him in a floating leap to the back and right where one point of a seven-pointed star would be. The instant leap caused his cousin’s blade to miss by a hair.

They both stood stunned for a moment before words tried to take over Lucan’s vision. He let them.

You have learned The 7-Point Star Dance. Consolidate?

Lucan gaped at the announcement. It was real. He hadn’t been duped. His father had been wrong. The book was authentic. The hand on his sword slackened as he consolidated the Skill and brought up his Elder Power.

Race: Human

Level: 1

Vital Orbs: 1

Mind and Body

Physique: Copper II 0/3

Spirit: Basic 0/1

Skills (1) 0/100

(Passive) Swordsmanship lv19: Apprentice

(Hybrid) 7-Point Star Dance lv1: Novice (0/1)

Lucan scrutinized his new skill. It was a Hybrid. They weren’t common but they weren’t extremely rare either. Some well-known skills like Analyze and Appraise were Hybrids. Lucan assumed that Lord Zesh had Analyze, as he had easily spotted Lucan’s Blessing upon arrival.

As far as Lucan knew, a Hybrid skill was a Passive skill that came with the advantages and drawbacks of an Active one. The advantage being the ability to improve their level with Vital Orbs. And the drawback being the limited amounts of uses per day based upon the level of the skill.

By virtue of earning the skill, Lucan knew how it worked, though he’d had an idea from the book anyway. One use of the skill would form an invisible star on the ground around him. He would be able to move incredibly quickly to each point of the star a single time. And he could return to the middle repeatedly as long as the skill was still working.

Lucan grinned. He’d learned a skill all on his own, most likely a special and rarely heard-of skill. Today might be a good day after all.

As if woken up by his own nagging mind, Lucan came to himself, removing the manifestation of his Elder Blessing to look across from himself at Winton. To his surprise, he didn’t see his second cousin, but saw Thomas’s back instead. The old steward was standing between them.

It appeared that he had been observing the fight and had interfered to give Lucan time to peruse his Blessing.