"Ow!" Fuyuko stumbled back as she clapped her hand over the spot where the padded weight of her own weapon had struck her in the head. Rubbing at the now sore and slightly tender spot, she glared at the soft, ball-shaped weight that hung at the end of its chain.
"Are you alright?" Papa asked, and Fuyuko nodded with a sigh.
"Yeah, only hurt a little," she muttered, then shook the tension out of her limbs to get ready to begin practice again.
"Alright," Mama M said, and Fuyuko thought that she might be able to hear a bit of laughter in Mama M's voice. "But this ti, maybe don't try getting ahead of the class. We're teaching everything in this order for a reason.
It was three days after playing tag with the dragons, and Fuyuko was one of several people training under Papa and Mama M, and it was with one of her favorite weapons that she'd gotten from their delve in Dersuta's nexus.
The teor hamr.
She also loved the rope dart, which was practically the sa weapon in many ways, but much more dangerous to practice tricks with. Her training weapon used a small but very dense weight with a lot of padding around it; it was harder to mimic a rope dart's weight and balance while using padding.
"We'll resu with the beginning of that last kata," Mordecai said, then he and Moriko proceeded to move through the kata in perfect synchronization. Fuyuko was pretty certain that they weren't even cheating via their nexus connection — they both simply knew the move set that well.
The heavy tal balls at the ends of their chains whipped about as the pair practically danced through the kata. The fine chain links wrapped around elbows and legs as the teor moved in a continual, flowing motion, then suddenly fired out at imaginary targets as the gathered energy was released. And these were the relatively simple forms; Fuyuko had seen them demonstrate complex combinations that looked like they should have completely entangled the wielder, but the deceptive entwining was smoothly undone in a single flick of hand or foot, sending the weight flying out, when directly cast at a target, or sweeping in from the side, or smashing down hard.
Once their demonstration was done, Moriko continued to steadily repeat the pattern at a slower pace for other people to reference, while Mordecai took a turn examining everyone's form during their practice and offering corrections. Every ten minutes or so, they swapped who was doing the demonstration and who was reviewing technique. They were insistent on only teaching one kata at a ti, as a person could always improve and master the moves more completely.
One of the things that impressed Fuyuko was how smoothly both Papa and Mama M perford every wrapping and sliding motion with an all-chain teor hamr — Fuyuko couldn't manage that with her mostly-rope version of the weapon.
Most of the length of Fuyuko's teor hamr was silk rope; it was only the last two feet that were chain. No chain at all would be easier to use, but in combat, rope could easily be cut. An all-chain length would be even more secure, but it was also a lot harder to handle, and Fuyuko was still mastering the basic forms. So for now, this was what she needed to practice with.
Which, for skill level, put her at about the middle of the group currently training. Betty was at the top of the class, along with Cephelia. The kraken boss enjoyed having a weapon that reminded her of her normal tentacles while in human form, and had said that she was getting so ideas to try out on poor, unsuspecting delvers later.
Sunniva, the recently elevated kitsune with tallic-red hair, was also very good, and she had been talking with Betty about ways that they could incorporate chain weapons into a 'double trouble' boss fight for their zone.
And now that the nexus had four bosses to rotate through for each zone, it was feasible to have two bosses from the sa zone be involved in training at the sa ti while coordinating to make sure there was always a boss available for that zone.
The other zone boss that had been enjoying learning the teor hamr was Rikune, the new kitsune boss of the earth zone. Fuyuko was pretty certain that she wanted to figure out how to cause small earthquakes with a heavy teor hamr.
She was also the only zone boss that wasn't better than Fuyuko, a small salve for Fuyuko's pride.
Mama K was even worse, but this didn't seem like much of a surprise. Kazue even had an all-rope practice weapon with a lighter, safer head. Now that Kazue had unbound the battle spirit to let it join Svetlana's nexus, she had beco a lot less skilled in the physical side of combat, but she still continued to participate in a little bit of practice. Mama K wasn't really trying to master the weapon the sa way as many others; she was here to train for a little while and get in so exercise.
In contrast, Kuni, the weapons master and zone boss in charge of testing new delvers, had found that she didn't need more than the initial round of instructions to complete her mastery, so she was not present for the current training.
For actual combat, Kuni did not have the raw power and speed to keep up with even Rikune, but her role as weapon master had granted her a deep understanding of any weapon that the cores or any other inhabitant had mastered. So when it ca to routine practice, she had all the moves perfected.
There were other inhabitants who were interested as well, but there were far too many for Mordecai and Moriko to work with them all directly. So Kuni and the bosses who were receiving training now would be responsible for training the other inhabitants, and so of them would take part in training delvers who requested it in the future.
The teor hamr was not a particularly practical weapon in many ways, but it was a very fun and showy one, and certainly viable if rarely ideal. Mastering all of its tricks was more about showmanship in many ways, but that was alright with Fuyuko. She didn't need this to be a perfect weapon, she wanted to be able to look amazing while playing with it while also being able to use it in a fight if needed.
It was also just as dangerous and deadly as any more conventional weapon, with sufficient skill, while also having more utility than most weapons, being capable of incapacity with out killing if used correctly. Kuni had demonstrated the deadliness of the teor hamr when she had whipped her weapon up to speed and rapidly left several dents in the wooden target set up for her demonstration.
In that sa amount of ti, Fuyuko would be hard pressed to get even two solid strikes in, and while sotis her casts had enough power behind them to do far more damage than Kuni's, she could not consistently control her casts and often had far less force than she wanted in the weight when it flew forth.
Thus, the drills and practice.
Aside from the occasional self-inflicted injury, the biggest distraction was Mama K, whenever she lost control of her teor hamr. She couldn't keep herself from reflexively letting go of the weapon and letting it fly off, which then caused a bit of a mad scramble between two of the hatchlings. Sparks and Hai-Ying-Riyo would both chase after it to 'kill' the weapon, and then fight over who got to bring it back to Kazue.
While Carnelian Fla was lounging about during this training, the stubborn and sotis haughty felinesque dragon refused to chase after the weapon like so 'pet'. Which was why Fuyuko found it funny to watch Carnelian's claws sink into the ground every ti the young dragon had to suppress the impulse to chase after it.
Normally, there would be one other person here, and the reason that Amrydor was missing was sothing that Fuyuko thought was amusing. Two days ago, they had learned that the caravan from Artgoi would be arriving within the week, and this information ca with confirmation that Geti was with the caravan.
The prospect had left Amrydor with a mixture of eagerness, nervousness, and a lot of energy to work off, so he had started a long delve on the non-combat path, beginning with the library and working his way down.
Given Amrydor's outward composure, Fuyuko wouldn't have known about all of his emotions if it wasn't for their empathic bond, but the past few weeks had shown her that Amry wasn't always as calm and confident as he appeared. She suspect that it was the result of his training; after all, 'a brave and powerful guardian of the people had to show confidence and leadership in tis of crisis'... or sothing like that.
She couldn't rember the exact phrase, but it was sothing that Amrydor had ntioned about his role and duties as a champion of Zagaroth. While he had chosen to be Fuyuko's personal, dedicated shield, he was also a shield for all people that were within his power to protect. As a champion, he wasn't allowed the caveat of 'innocent people'. So long as a person was not a part of the danger that threatened other people, it was his duty to protect even convicted criminals.
He really had chosen a very difficult path, and Fuyuko knew that she couldn't have made the sa choices. Not that her own path was going to exactly be easy, but the difficult aspects were different.
Talking with Amrydor about him becoming a champion of Zagaroth had gotten Fuyuko thinking, and she'd asked Papa about how one beca a champion of Li.
"You're already well on that path," had been his reply.
Fuyuko still wasn't sure what to do with that information, though at least Papa had also told her that Li's champions each had their own path to walk. It ca naturally or not at all.
For a little bit, she'd been hoping that she would get divine spells like Amrydor had been starting to get, but Papa had dashed those hopes. Amrydor had specifically also been training to be a priest, not just a champion. Zagaroth was the only one who required his champions to all be full priests as well.
So without also becoming a priestess, the most Fuyuko was likely to get in the way of direct spell magic was a healing prayer, and maybe one or two other spells that fit her growth well. Sort of like how Bellona didn't do spell magic other than healing, because she wasn't a priestess.
If Fuyuko wanted to beco a priestess of Li, that was up to her, but once again, she'd have to find her own way there, though Mordecai would always be willing to answer more specific questions she might have.
That seed like more than she was ready for, so she had set that idea aside for now.
Pondering what it ant and would an to be a champion of the shattered god was plenty to keep her mind occupied, and provided sothing else for Fuyuko to do as the motions of her kata started becoming smoother and easier, consuming less of her attention as ti went on. The steady beat of rope and chain whipping around her body beca a ditative sound for her wandering mind.
What would her duties be? Protecting children and the child-like was obvious, but how and where? Did she need to go looking for kids that needed protection? Was she supposed to simply wander and let luck guide her to where she needed to be?
Luck did seem likely to be part of her answer. Trusting in Li's luck had done her well so far. And she was probably too young to need to go wandering much: there was still so much for her to learn, and her parents had said that they would all be traveling more in the future, so there would be lots of chances for luck to guide her, so long as she was open to the guidance.
Not that Fuyuko expected it to be quite that easy. Perhaps luck had brought her to that gang leader when she was back in Cantraberg, but it had been her choice to kill him.
It was hard for her to imagine Li having done that; in most of the stories she'd heard of him, Li was always a master trickster. He'd have made the man's life miserable in so way while managing to rescue all sorts of children or sothing, and then the man's hubris or anger would have led to his own downfall. That downfall might even be an ironic and funny death, but it would not have been Li's actions.
Even assuming such a tale was a perfect retelling of events, Li was a god of luck, whether he knew it or not. He could do things that re mortals could not.
And maybe, sotis, as a champion of Li, it would be her job to do the things that Li could not do, but that needed to be done. A risky path, because Li would never be able to tell her if she'd done right or wrong, or exactly what had been right or wrong. If she ssed things up, she'd simply lose whatever blessings had co from him. Maybe talking to a caretaker would help her find her way back if that happened, maybe not. It also might put her at odds with Amry’s ideology, which she didn’t know how that would affect them both in the future. She probably ought to discuss that more in-depth with Orchid.
Fuyuko's musing's were interrupted when Mordecai caught the flying weight on the end of her chain, neatly plucking it out of the air despite its weight and speed. "What?" she asked in confusion as she looked around, trying to figure out what had happened.
That was when she realized she was the last one still going through the kata, and most of the others were already leaving.
"Well," Papa said with a laugh in his voice, "I think it's fair to say that you've mastered that set as far as you can today. Your form isn't perfect, but you need rest and to practice other katas before you can improve your performance here. You've reliably and accurately perford the entire set without missing a trick over a dozen tis, while you weren't even focused on it."
She had? Fuyuko couldn't really rember doing it that many tis, but she couldn't say how many tis she had done so. Also, she had sore muscles that she hadn't felt before — a teor hamr required a slightly different set than most of her other weapons.
"Oh. Um, I guess that ans we're done," she said with embarrassnt at her lack of awareness.
"Yes, we are," Mama M said as she ca up and hugged Fuyuko from behind. "Now, if you go take a hot bath, any tight muscles should relax, and your natural healing should take care of the rest by dinnerti."
"I'll head up with you," Mama K added. "These two have been talking about so crazy ideas to try out, and I'm more than done with hanging out down here. And no, you don't get to watch; we all agree that it would give you reckless ideas. If they can work things out, they can teach you when you are ready."
Fuyuko would object to the label of reckless if she didn't know that they were probably right.
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