"It's not so bad as all that," you say, once Samir is calm enough to listen instead of get touched off again. He spares you a look of mild disbelief. "Think about it from another angle. You're basically telling me everything you've overcome so far, haven't you?"
Samir leans against the wall, giving you a sort of faint smile as you recount his story with a different twist. It's clear he knows what you're doing, but that doesn't mean it's not working. "You nearly starved to death, but through a loving family making a hard choice you didn't. You theoretically didn't succeed from there, just failed to gain magic or the powers of a hero over the years, but in a way that kept you alive when you were on the cusp of dying again. You're walking around right now when every god and angel in the whole Shallow Ocean died. Here we are, trying to make the best of it, and you're still breathing and still eating along with us."
He puts his thumbs on his temples and massages his eyes. "I know. I know. It's just... pathetic. I shouldn't let it get to me, right?"
"It's not bad that it gets to you. We're all people and we have our own feelings. But you've beaten the odds an awful lot to get here. You know what miracles are called when they happen every time?"
"What?"
"Skill. You're very skilled at surviving, Samir. It may be hard work, maybe even harder for you than others, but you're still part of the team if you want to be."
Samir barks a laugh, sour but stil with an edge of genuine amusement. "I tell you I wanna be lazy, and you respond by telling me to work hard? That's stupid, boss." He grins.
"Maybe." You run a hand through your hair, thinking that over. It probably needed to be said, but maybe that wasn't the best place to say it. Or maybe it really needed to be said there to make it clear you weren't minimizing the hard times probably ahead. You'd drive yourself spare wondering about the what-ifs there if you let it. Instead, you clear your throat, to indicate a change of topic. "Well, the night's still young. It may not be more alcohol, but I do have something else we can do that's both productive and fun to pass the time."
"Oh?" Samir plays up his doubt with an outrageously exaggerated expression.
"Yeah. I figure we can all go beat on Kalju for a while, pretend that that's going to help things."
"It would be a shame to set up the hall and not use it," Samir says with an equally exaggerated thoughtful pose.
You and Samir exit. He's still a little fragile, but you seem to have found something very appropriate for him for now.
- -
Picking Kalju wasn't a random choice. Right now, with tensions running as high as they are, you and he were much better choices than Dawn or Samir, and you're not in your best shape with the shot to your ribs earlier. The fact that he is supposed to have the best aptitude for enlightened martial traditions is just a bonus.
The super-compressed method you discussed before is employed, once everyone re-arms with appropriate training equipment from the armory: heavy, serious equipment, but not bladed. It can absolutely injure or kill, just not as easily as the real deal. Normally, this training would involve longer periods of time and a meal on the far side of opposition. When pressed hard, some people respond by overcoming the limits of sanity and claiming some new power. Here, lacking in time, you've substituted water. Kalju has to hold himself close to a fire you've constructed, sweating, and once he's very thirsty, the other three of you fight to prevent him from reaching a small mug of water, but also ramp up your opposition each time. The first time, it's almost a token struggle. You're only putting maybe half your strength into it.
The second time, you do try, but not to an extreme. You and Dawn fight independently, occasionally having to 'correct' to not fight in cohesion like you were trained until it became a habit. For this fight, Samir replaces his bow with a sling, which lets him throw stinging bullets but not ones likely to seriously damage Kalju. Or Dawn by 'accident', for that matter. A sling is absolutely a weapon, and potentially nearly as nasty as a good compound bow, but Samir can throw something rounded instead of sharp and at a controlled lesser velocity with it quite effectively.
The third time, Kalju falters. You and Dawn set up your shield wall, and leave him no room for attack. When he tries to muscle through you, you push him down and hack at his legs with your forward-curved sword. He rolls aside and springs lightly to his feet, but Samir nails him with a sling bullet to the gut. He stumbles back, and Dawn mimes a crippling strike before he can reset himself. He looks at her macehead with an intense focus. "Again," is all he says.
The four of you set yourselves for another round of the spar, you and Dawn directly between him and a small mug of water that is his goal, with Samir behind you and off to one side. Kalju stands in front of the fire, sweating from both head and exhaustion. Silently, Kalju advances again. This time, he fights smarter, using his spear and greater leverage to control the distance of the fight. It's a longer match, this time. He eventually drives you back far enough by good control and good footwork for him to make a dive for the water when you didn't expect him to. Success, technically.
He sweats it out again, while the other three of you refresh yourselves.
For the fourth round, he's clearly drained, and you're not. It's not a question of tactics or trickery this time. He's pushed to a limit, and again you're not going to give him an inch he hasn't earned. In fact, the fight goes the other way. He thrusts his spear, trying to force you back, but you push an angled shield towards him and it glances off, letting you step forward. He has to give ground. Dawn is right there, too, and he has to dodge from her, too. Samir is providing his own sort of support, which is half verbal abuse and half painful sling bullets.
His left foot comes up against the hearth. He spares a flicker of attention to it, as you and Dawn circle to surround him. You come in with a quick slash. No matter the outcome, you have to push like it's real for any hope of success.
Then, you dodge. Kalju's training spear comes whistling down where you just abandoned. It almost impacts the floor, then stops incredibly suddenly. It wasn't a stab, that time. It was an overarm smash that came out with an outrageous speed and power behind it, especially for how drained he is. Dawn tries to attack while he's distracted, but he jumps away. Has he always been able to jump that high?
Your dodge wasn't one that put you entirely out of position, either. You set your feet in your new location and go for an upward cut and--
--you just get your shield up in time. He stabs out again, and despite your attempt to deflect it, the sheer power of his thrust throws you back. Cat-like, you manage to twist and keep your feet under you, so you don't fall, but you're not up against normal Kalju now. He's broken some shell, and it's clear what that shell is.
Two or three more rounds of blows are exchanged, but his brute strength pushes you and Dawn back irresistibly, and even throws Dawn into Samir to keep the latter from bothering him. He gets his water.
"Not what I expected a new hero to first drink," you comment as he finishes it, trying to shake feeling back into somewhat numbed arms.
"Yeah," Kalju agrees, still somewhat unmoved. He checks the cup, just in case there's more water hiding in it after he finished it. "Need more."
"Go for it. I think training is done for the night." On any objective level, this has to be an unmitigated success: you took dross and found a way to polish it into a new hero. "That strength you showed... it sort of reminds me of Bear's Mantle techniques. Do you think you could handle oversized weapons with their special grip?"
Kalju shrugs. After a stop for more to drink, you head to the armory to test it out. Kalju's new brute strength persists if he focuses on it, but oversized weapons still end up overly awkward. Without training, he's either going to have to re-develop the style on his own or find another one. It's not like there are any shortage of enlightened martial traditions that benefit from or even require massive strength.
Samir and Dawn drift off to bed during the discovery process, leaving you and Kalju alone for a bit. You're flagging, and it doesn't look like Kalju's much better, but before you can make your own excuses, Kalju decides to speak up. "Boss?"
"Yes, Kalju?"
"We're running out of time, you know. Not just for grabbing those potions or even working off the less perishable foods the temple stored. The capital's going to blow up in violence, sooner rather than later. Not enough food is getting out to people, no one's sure who's in charge, and... more terrible things are going to come from the Great Dying that we haven't figured out yet. We need to be ready." With that, he leaves.
It's nice to end the day on a cheerful note.
You head to your own room, footsteps echoing seemingly loudly in the oversized and empty halls.
- -
Who do you first run into in the morning?
[] Kalju
[] Samir
[] Dawn
[] Zahira
What is your plan for the day?
[] Potion run. Maybe it's still unclaimed.
[] Find the next ship out of here.
[] Try to sign onto someone's payroll.
- [] Who?
[] Write-in
- -
Hopefully that flows well enough. I intended this to be an interruption from the training, so returning back to it within an update should still make sense.
