Give and Take - Ch. 07 by slyc_willie

Give and Take

A young newcomer, dreaming of adventure and a better life, crosses paths with a veteran who has lost himself. Can they help each other find what they seek? Or does their partnership only end in tragedy?

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Chapter 7

The courtyard bustled with activity, the muffled clang of practice weapons striking each other rising over the sounds of grunts of exertion. Alice looked around the sizable open space. Jay had led her out the back of the Guild hall into an open-air courtyard, hemmed in by tall buildings on every side. Looking up, she could see the sky, but that was about all she could see.

"It's good for some sunlight, and a bit of fresh air, but not much else." Jay said, noticing her looking upwards.

"Why not just build a roof then?" Alice asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

"Unless you enjoy the concentrated smell of sweat, I think you'd rather they leave it open." He returned wryly.

Alice chuckled, shaking her head. She was doing her best to seem nonchalant, but her stomach was currently tying itself into knots. She took a few deep breaths, coughing slightly at the swirling dust being kicked up by the other adventurers around the empty yard. She kicked lightly at the dry, packed dirt. It clearly hadn't rained recently.

She had felt confident and ready after sparring with Jay for most of the morning, but during the walk to the Guild, and now standing here, she could feel that confidence slipping away.

The goblin tried to take her mind off of the coming exam, looking around at the various members of the Guild. It seemed like everyone was either training, sparring, or getting ready for their own tests.

Jay's arrival, and the prospect of several adventurers attempting a B rank promotion, had clearly invigorated the Guild branch. According to her mentor, more than a dozen members were attempting rank up exams that day, everything from the B rank hopefuls all the way down to newbies looking to advance to F and E ranks.

A pair of humans close to her caught Alice's eye, and she turned to watch them spar. Their movements looked slow, even clumsy to the goblin. She wasn't surprised to see each wearing a copper plate, though they were too far for her to make out the letters embossed on them. Watching one of them flail wildly on what should have been a simple parry, Alice could feel a tiny bit of her self-confidence return.

"Tenstrom!"

The call came from across the yard, and Alice looked over to see the Guildmaster, and what looked like some of the high-ranking staff from the Guild.

"You're up first! We'll start with the B rank tests."

A change came over the adventurers there, the excitement in the air palpable. Even Alice could feel it a bit. She hadn't realized it was such a big deal, but it made sense if you thought about it.

Her mentor raised a hand in acknowledgement to the Guildmaster, then nodded to the goblin.

"I suppose it's about time to get started."

"Good luck out there." Alice replied, nudging him with her elbow. Well, nudging his leg, at least.

"I'm not the one who is going to need the luck." he returned dryly.

She watched as he made his way over to the wall where the practice weapons were lined up, available for anyone to use. From what she could see, they were pretty simple. They looked to be blunt iron bars with hilts, their sizes ranging from the same length as her dagger to a couple swords even longer than Jay's. The "blade" of each weapon was wrapped with a padded cloth, to soften any hits that landed during a spar. It still would probably hurt like crazy to get hit by one though.

To her surprise, after setting his weapon on a nearby rack, Jay walked straight past the practice weapons that resembled his hand-and-a-half sword, moving to the smaller weapons. Without hesitation, he picked up one of the practice pieces, something about the length of a short sword. He spun it easily in his grip, apparently satisfied with the weapon.

"But...why?" Alice muttered, confused. She had never seen him use a weapon other than his bastard sword before.

The adventurers around the yard started to gather, leaving a large area open while Jay moved to the center.

"Erin, get in there!" The Guildmaster's voice rang out from somewhere Alice couldn't see.

A young man, a human, broke from the crowd, making his way to the center of the ring. He was a bit younger than Jay, Alice guessed he was possibly in his early twenties. He looked nervous but eager, as he moved to face Jay.

A ripple of excitement ran throughout the small crowd, and Alice could hear dozens of quiet conversations springing up around the yard. The energy was infectious, and the goblin was starting to feel a bit excited for her own exam.

The young man bowed to Jay, and her mentor replied to the gesture, dipping his head slightly, before taking up a battle stance. Jay tucked his free hand behind him, turning his body nearly sideways to his opponent, his practice short sword at the ready. The candidate, Erin, readied his own weapon, a longsword. The weapon was even longer than Jay's usual blade, but thinner.

Everyone in the yard seemed to hold their breath for a moment, waiting.

"Begin!"

The Guildmaster's voice rang out, and Erin burst into motion.

Closing the distance between them, the younger man smoothly lunged forward with a measured thrust. Moving just his wrist, Jay swatted the weapon aside, and immediately swept his own blade at the other man's chest. Erin swayed backwards, keeping out of the reach of the shorter weapon.

Regaining his balance, Erin launched a sweeping attack, taking advantage of his longer reach. This time, Jay intercepted the attack with a swing of his own, deflecting the longsword wide. Taking a step forward, Jay flicked his weapon upwards, slashing at the younger man's chest. Erin barely managed to block the attack, his longer weapon clearly a bit awkward to use at such a close range.

"Stop letting me into your space so easily!" Jay's voice caused the younger man to jump a bit, surprised by the sudden instruction.

He pressed forward, sending another slash at a difficult to defend angle.

"Move your feet more!" Jay barked the instruction out, and Alice straightened up unconsciously at the sound of her mentor's "teaching voice", as she called it in her head.

"You have more range, make use of it!"

The younger man was quick to adapt, working hard to make some distance between Jay and himself. He was good, Alice could tell. She supposed it was to be expected. He was up for promotion to B rank, after all. She watched as the two exchanged another dozen or so attacks, Jay occasionally giving another piece of advice.

After one particularly quick exchange left Erin off balance, Jay straightened up, lowering his weapon. Alice furrowed her brow. Was that the end of the test? The younger man also hesitantly lowered his. Alice could see the nervousness on his face, no doubt wondering whether he passed or not.

"If you plan to continue using a long sword, you need to work more on your conditioning." Jay's voice was clear, and it carried easily in the stillness of the yard. "Move your feet more, and focus on your spacing. An attack that can't reach you is an attack that will never hit you."

A moment of silence fell over the assembled adventurers, as if they were all holding their breaths.

"Pass."

The single word from Jay was enough to cause an eruption of cheering. Erin clearly couldn't keep a relieved grin off of his face.

Alice cheered along with the rest of the assembled group. Her nerves were still there, but she couldn't help but be swept up in the excitement of the crowd. She was sure she wouldn't have been able to beat Erin, but she had been able to see it when he made mistakes. It felt like a relief, compared to the perfect performance she constantly saw from Jay during her training.

Erin bowed once more, before grabbing Jay's free hand and shaking it rapidly, to the clear bemusement of Alice's mentor. The younger man trotted out of the center of the space, where he was greeted with enthusiastic pats on his shoulders and back, probably from his teammates.

"Raol, you're up next! Get out there!" The Guildmaster's voice rang out from somewhere in the crowd, and another adventurer walked forward from the crowd.

Alice was somewhat surprised to see he was a beastkin, with small, round ears, covered in striped fur, sticking out of his hair. He had a serious expression on his face, clearly focused entirely on the coming test. In his hands, he held a one handed sword and a dagger, the practice weapons steady in his grip.

Raol also bowed stiffly to Jay, and once again the human returned the gesture. Each of them fell into their fighting stances, Jay raising his arm, his short sword parallel to the ground this time.

"Begin!" The Guildmaster's command came quicker this time, as the two combatants moved at the same time.

This time, Alice watched as Jay was the one on the move, his feet in constant motion. He would dive in for a sharp attack, forcing Raol to either parry or dodge, and then he was away before the beastkin could strike in return.

"Don't just react!" Once again, Jay's advice came out in a bark, Raol's ears perking up at the words. "Look for opportunities to seize the pace."

The beastkin said nothing, but clearly listened, springing forwards toward the human in a rush. He closed into striking distance, launching a flurry of attacks. Jay simply caught them all in a frankly brilliant series of parries. At least, they certainly looked brilliant to the goblin.

"I see he hasn't gotten rusty at all."

A voice behind Alice caused her to jump, spinning around. The Guildmaster was standing behind her, his eyes on the spar.

"Ah, um...sorry, sir." She did an awkward half-bow to the older man. "I didn't realize you were there."

"Please, be at ease." The man smiled down at her, tearing his eyes from the spar. "Unless it's official Guild matters, I'm not really one for formality. Feel free to keep watching, by the way. It's good visual training."

Alice did as he suggested, feeling a bit odd at turning her back on him. Her eyes returned to the fight, just in time to watch Jay intercept another rush from the beastkin. Raol's long thin tail was whipping around, as the beastkin tried to circle around his examiner.

"I wanted to have a couple of words with you, actually." The Guildmaster's voice was loud enough to reach her, but low enough to not carry much farther.

"Did...did I do something wrong?" Alice asked nervously, glancing up over her shoulder.

"Not at all." The man shook his head. "I was just curious. Jay is training you, is he not?"

"Yeah, he is." She turned her head back to the spar, but her mind was focused on the man's words.

"And how long has it been since he started training you?"

"It's been...almost a month now." Alice had to think for a moment, distracted by the match.

"So he really did take you as his student." The Guildmaster muttered it, but Alice's sensitive ears picked it up anyway.

"Is there something wrong with that?" She asked, confused.

"Oh, no, not at all." The man replied, sounding just a tiny bit flustered. "I was just a little surprised. I've known him, or rather I've knownofhim, for a long time. But I have never once heard of him taking in an apprentice."

"I see." Alice paused, thinking for a moment. "But is it really that unheard of for an A ranker to take a student?"

"For your average A rank adventurer, no, not particularly." The Guildmaster mused. "For Jay Tenstrom, though...it's a little more noteworthy."

Alice glanced over her shoulder at the man again, a puzzled expression on her face.

"What do you mean? He's an A ranker like the rest of them, isn't he?"

This time the Guildmaster looked down at her, surprise plain on his face.

"You mean he hasn't told you?"

"Told me what?" Alice returned, a touch defensive. There were certainly things she didn't know about her mentor, but she didn't think he was actively keeping anything important from her.

"Alice...Tenstrom isn't your average A rank adventurer." He explained, holding her gaze. "He's one oftheA ranks, one of the greatest."

"But I thought all adventurers of a certain rank were equal." Alice asked, confused.

"Ah, right. You've only recently become an adventurer, correct?" He looked down, and Alice nodded. "That is correct formostranks. However, since A is the final rank for adventurers, the difference between fresh A ranks and veteran A ranks isverylarge." The man's eyes went to the spar once more. "And even then, there is a massive gulf between a veteran A rank, and someone like Tenstrom."

Alice was quiet for a few moments, trying to process the words. Of course Jay was strong, but for him to bethatstrong was more than a bit of a surprise. Just what kind of outrageous person had she asked to be her teacher?

After a moment, she heard the Guildmaster's voice again.

"After all, he was one of the adventurers who killed the Demon Lord."

Alice fully spun around, her eyes wide. Jay had donewhat?She could barely believe her ears. Even through her shock, though, a small thread of confusion wove through her mind. Demon Lord...hadn't Jay called it something different? The words sounded...somehow wrong in her ears.

Before she could question the Guildmaster, she heard Jay's voice rising over the sounds of the crowd behind her. Still reeling, the goblin turned back to look at the spar. It was apparently over, both combatants standing with weapons lowered.

"You need to be quicker to step in." Jay was saying, his face neutral. "Your weapon choice lends itself towards constant, controlled aggression. You'll need to train and practice to know when to push forward, and when to look for another avenue of attack."

Again, he paused for a moment, and Alice wasn't sure if he was doing it on purpose or not.

"Pass."

The yard burst into cheering once more, and Raol finally seemed to relax, breaking into a wide, almost goofy grin. He bowed vigorously to Jay, before turning and trotting back to a small cluster of beastkin, who dogpiled him in a group hug.

Alice glanced back at the Guildmaster, but the man was already looking down at the piece of parchment he was carrying.

"Cam! It's your turn, get out there!"

Another human man, maybe a few years older than Erin, stepped out into the center. He carried what looked to be a hand axe and a buckler, which felt like an odd choice to Alice, though she couldn't say why. His face strangely resembled a rodent's, his eyes small and mean-looking. Unlike the previous two examinees, he didn't bother bowing to Jay, even when her mentor offered the man a small bow.

Alice immediately decided that she didn't like him.

Jay assumed his stance again, while Cam leaned forward in an aggressive manner.

"Begin!"

At the sound of the Guildmaster's voice, Cam immediately charged forward, rushing at Jay. He aimed for Jay's shoulder, swinging his ax down in a swift chop. Jay was nearly motionless until the last second, before catching the weapon in a parry, diverting the axe's "blade" harmlessly wide. Cam immediately followed up, trying to bash the other man in the face with his shield.

Alice winced preemptively. That was probably exactly what Jay wanted his opponent to do.

Jay simply slipped to the side, flicking his blade up to tap Cam on the arm wielding the buckler.

"Only offer attacks with your shield if your opponent is not in a position to counter them!" Jay's instruction rang out across the yard.

Surprisingly, his opponent merely made a sound of anger, almost a growl, and swung again.

Cam continued to attack aggressively, forcing Jay to counter his axe swing and then trying to ram his shoulder into the examiner. The more experienced fighter slipped away once more, offering a calm attack that was deflected by Cam's buckler this time.

The axe wielder moved in to attack yet again, forcing Jay to backstep in return.

It seemed as though Jay was getting tired of the man's constant aggression, and started an attack of his own, forcing Cam to use his buckler and axe purely for defense. Even then, one of Jay's attacks slipped through, tapping the man on the shoulder.

That alone wasn't damning, as both Raol and Erin had both taken a few "hits" during their tests, but it looked like Cam was refusing to learn or adapt to Jay's tactics and style. He made another noise of frustration at the touch, and redoubled his efforts.

The next few minutes were painful to watch. Cam kept getting angrier and angrier as the test went on, and clearly refused to follow or even acknowledge any of Jay's advice during the spar. Jay must have scored almost a dozen touches on the man, and Alice got the distinct impression that he could have doubled that number with little effort.

Finally, Jay stepped back, lowering his weapon. Cam hesitated for a moment, then sullenly lowered his own.

"You focus far too much on offense." Jay's voice was calm, his eyes hard. "It will work on weaker opponents, but against an even match, you will lose your life quickly. You need to work on balancing defense and offense. If you cannot do that, you need to change your weapons of choice. They do not fit your approach to combat."

"I cannot pass you in this state." Jay's voice grew quiet, but was still easily audible in the stillness of the yard. "Fail."

"This is shite!" Cam growled angrily. "I fought just as well as the last two!"

"If you think so, then your judgement is far worse than I believed." Jay answered, his tone hard as iron. "You will not survive like this."

"Cam! Enough!" The Guildmaster strode past Alice, approaching the pair. "The test is over. Step down!"

"Demons take this stupid test!" Cam spat, storming out of the sparring area. A few other men slunk out after him, muttering under their breath.

There were some murmured conversations throughout the crowd, and from the small snippets that Alice caught, it seemed as though Cam and his party were not well-liked around the Guild branch. After a few moments, everyone settled down, waiting for the next exam to begin.

Alice and the rest of the gathered adventurers watched as three more hopefuls tried for B rank.

The first was a human named Nedan, noticeably older than Jay, wielding what Alice thought was a rapier. He put up a valiant effort, but simply wasn't fast enough to keep up with Jay. He took his failing result with a rueful smile, seemingly not very surprised.

After that was a younger man, a human who went by Tora and fought with a spear. He was clearly the youngest of the examinees, just barely an adult by human standards, Alice guessed. The goblin felt the most sorry for him. He was clearly skilled enough, but was far too nervous, making constant mistakes, and not able to follow Jay's advice during the spar. Jay's post-exam assessment was a bit more kind, encouraging Tora to keep training and get some more experience under his belt.

The last B rank candidate was a bit of a surprise to Alice. An elf woman, by the name of Elaria. She generally fought with a bow, so Jay had to change the test up a bit. First he tested her accuracy and the speed at which she could knock an arrow and release it. Then he had her fire at targets while keeping mobile, trying to simulate a fight against a monster. The last part was similar to a normal spar, but on the condition that she must try to make distance, testing how well she could defend herself against an attacker closing in.

Finally, Jay announced that the elf had passed to more cheering. Elaria herself had been cool and composed throughout her test, but the smile of relief on her face afterwards was sincere. She moved to celebrate with a few human adventurers, who showered her with words of praise.

Give and Take - Ch. 07

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