Test of Skill

The Sky before them looked like an insurmountable opponent. Beads of sweat dripped from Leo’s brow, and Arte found it hard to breathe. They gripped their weapons tightly before turning to one another and kneeling. Sky’s ominous expression turned to bewilderment.

“We’ve got some time to plan,” Arte whispered.

“Yeah, for this fight, she won’t make a move even if you stood there for hours in the game.” He whispered back. “How's the sword?”

“It’s got some weight to it. But luckily, it feels like I can swing it around just fine.” She says.

“Must’ve been from all the boxes they had us move for work.” He states.

“Ugh… Don’t remind me.” Arte groaned. “How's that dagger working for you?”

Leo takes it out and begins doing some rudimentary slashes.

“Hehe, I’ve been training for this my entire life, albeit unknowingly. In my spare time, I practiced in front of the mirror with a kitchen knife…”

“You love thieves too much… Although, I’m not much better. I did the same with a wooden sword I bought.”

“Hehe, looks like we’re both slaves to our favorite weapons. Well, let's just get on with it.” Leo states.

Leo stands up, Arte stretches her arms out while still crouched, and flourishes the sword in her hand. They charge headfirst toward Sky; however, Arte splits off from Leo and runs to the side with a diagonal downward slash. Sky stepped to the side and dodged the blow, causing the blade to keep going and hit the ground. The power and momentum caused the blade to get stuck in the soil, so Arte was forced to remove it. Meanwhile, Leo was throwing slash after slash with his dagger, overhand slices, horizontal slices, and stabs, but Sky dodged all of it, like a graceful dancer. She was somewhat surprised, however, because his style of attack felt eerily similar. A figure appeared behind her with an aerial slash. After her earlier blunder, Arte realized that she didn’t need to put all her strength into the blow. Although she was simply mimicking the hero’s sword style, she found that less is more. Giving herself better control of the blade itself.

“Air Strike!” She shouted.

Sky found herself sandwiched between the two and was forced to block. She used her fingernail to catch the blade without even damaging it. And took Leo’s blow to the stomach. Leo felt the blade hit and was thrown off. The resulting sound was like hitting a hammer on an anvil.

“Okay, that's enough for now,” Sky says. After they put their blades down, they stood in front of Sky. Sky plucked Leo on the forehead.

“Oww!” He grimaced.

“Leo, you had some constant pressure, but you didn’t aim for any of my vitals. Not to mention that the style you emulated doesn’t suit your body type. I can imagine it was difficult for you to pull off some attacks, right?” She questions.

“Yeah…” He agreed.

“In fact. It almost felt like you were trying to emulate my style. But my style isn’t so unrefined and desperate. Make use of your body more. I can tell you’re muscular, but still agile,” She explained.

Arte snickered to herself.

“I’d have plucked you, too, if you didn’t realize why your first attack failed so spectacularly.” Sky goes ahead and plucks Arte on the forehead, anyway.

“Yeeouch!” She groaned, covering her forehead with both hands. “You said you weren’t gonna pluck me!”

“For that reason. I plucked you because the two of you did not have me trapped there. If I dodged, you’d have killed your friend. Split him in two.”

Arte was visibly shaken. Despite already knowing the danger that existed here as well, from monsters and other hostile threats, there was one thing she didn’t think about. Friendly fire. In the game, you could do grand attacks, explosive spells, and the like without worry of damaging allies, but here it couldn’t be further from the truth.

“I’m sorry, Leo.” She apologized.

“No harm, no foul, right?” He says, hands behind his head.

“Another thing, that attack you shouted earlier, is a skill from the knight class. So you can’t use it. Just a bit of advice, you probably shouldn’t call out your attack names.” Sky suggests.

Arte becomes completely embarrassed.

“It won’t happen again… I just got caught up in the moment.” She admits.

Leo chuckles.

“From what I’ve seen, we need to work on both of your fundamentals. So we’re gonna begin working on that starting now. When I feel you’ve gotten better, then I’ll have something for you both.” She explains. “Now then, let’s work on your fundamentals. I’ll show you a method my mother taught me.”

Sky smiled at them both. Knowing what they knew about Sky’s character, they felt threatened by her honest smile. About ten minutes later, they arrived at the top of a nearby mountain. The path up the mountain was winding and held a wide, yet smooth groove within it that went to the top. The top was shrouded in fog, which made visibility poor. Leo reached his arm out, seeing his hand partially obscured by it. Sky was quietly preparing something, while Arte and Leo were leaning against the nearby rock.

“We never learned what type of training she put the hero through, did we?” Arte asks.

“Nope. They just gave us a box of exposition, explaining how the hero was traumatized.” Leo remembered.

“I’m getting anxious.” Arte worried.

“It’ll be fun, probably,” Leo says.

“Alright, everything’s ready, you two.” Sky calls out.

They follow the sound of her voice, but she’s not there.

“Sky?” Leo calls out.

The fog begins to gather in one location, causing them to cover their eyes.

“What’s happening?” Arte questions.

As they opened their eyes, the darkening sky was overhead, while the sun painted the horizon with a pinkish-orange hue.

“My mother named me after seeing this sight herself,” Sky spoke. “Unfortunately, you won’t have time to enjoy it.”

A loud noise erupted from behind them, causing them to turn. A giant boulder was slowly beginning its descent down the mountain toward them.

“Get to running!” Sky started laughing.

Leo and Arte began sprinting back down the mountain frantically. The boulder began to pick up speed, following the grooves in the rocks and preparing to overtake them.