Chapter 18 : His role model

“Ren! Kieran!” Gary called, as he walked towards the two boys by the rack.

“Listen, these weapons are too big for you! Come here, the smaller weapons are here,” he said as he brought the two boys to a different rack. The tools and weapons were on the rack, but the sizes were much smaller. It was catered to children.

“These are the smaller sized ones for kids your ages. You guys can play around with these,” he said as he picked up a spear and lifted it up to look. It was a wooden spear with a ball of cloth at the tip instead of an edge. Most likely to protect the children from actually stabbing each other. He handed it to Ren, who started bursting with joy and energy.

“Wow! It’s so cool! I can practice with a spear now! My dad never let me practice before! Thanks uncle Gary!” he said very excitedly, already swinging the spear around.

Kieran walked up to the rack. He didn’t know what to pick. For one, he used to play around with model guns as Edward, but the closest thing to that was a bow and arrow. The bow and arrow was fundamentally different from a gun, so it was a no go. He wasn’t a fan of the spear either, so he picked up the sword. It was a simple double edged sword. The tip had been flattened, so really it was a wooden spatulated sword. He picked it up. It was a bit heavy, but his body could hold it.

“Alright kids, just have fun, there’s some training dummies over there if you wanna fight those,” he said as he pointed to the side where there were straw training dummies.

Ren immediately ran towards the dummies and started viciously attacking it, giving it no mercy. However, Kieran just held the sword and looked at it. Gary noticed this, and eyed Kieran.

“I need to watch them. Their forms, I need to learn the basics of swordsmanship”

“Gary, can you teach me the sword?”

Gary looked at the child, confused. Then, he let out a laugh.

“Child, aren’t you only 6? It’s too early for you to learn anything, haha. Ren, maybe I could have someone teach him, but it's still way too early for you,” he said, still chuckling at the mere thought of teaching a 6 year old.

Kieran just stared at him for a bit before going to where the straw dummies and Ren were.

“What a weird child..”

Kieran walked up to Ren, watching him swing the spear into the dummy. He was just whacking it continuously with no break. There was no skill, his footwork all out of place. Though physically he was a child, mentally, he was grown. He had common sense and didn’t have the naivety of a child. He knew when something was wrong, and was smart enough to fill in the gaps. Kieran went to another dummy, and stood in front. He glanced at a watchman who was also practicing his form. He had his left foot forwards and right foot back, he was planted. Legs bent, but not too bent, just enough to spring out. Both hands gripping the sword, body turned frontwards, he copied the stance. The man lifted the sword upwards while taking a step forward, then struck downwards. This was a basic strike, one of the fundamentals of swordcraft. Everyone else who was doing their own thing were practicing flashy moves that obviously had holes in them. This watchman was the only one practicing this simple move.

Kieran looked back at his dummy, and clutched the sword in his hand. He closed his eyes and breathed. He focused, trying to feel everything from his fingertips. When he opened his eyes, he took a step forwards, lifting the sword. When he struck down, he used all his might into it, imagining gravity pulling it down. Though he tried his best, he struck the arm of the dummy, and the dummy did not move a bit when struck. When Ren hit it, it at least shook a little bit, but Kieran couldn’t get it to vibrate a little bit. Was his body really in such terrible shape? He practiced this again and again. Over time, though his power did not increase, his accuracy and consistency did. He was slowly getting the trajectory of the slash straighter and straighter, hitting straight in front of him. Some of the watchmen took notice of this, and saw that the child had potential. They would sometimes take quick glances at the child before returning to their own training.

Ren at this point had already exhausted much of his energy, simply whacking the dummy with no form was tiring. Kieran was not as tired, since he took his time to perfect the strike. Ren saw this, and felt a bit embarrassed, but also in awe of Kieran’s focus and seriousness.

“Hey, let's fight!” Ren suggested, breaking Kieran’s strike streak.

Kieran wiped the sweat from his forehead, breathing a bit heavily, and looked at Ren.

“You want to fight now?”

“Yeah! We both practiced a little bit right? Let’s see how far we are!”

Kieran thought nothing much of it and accepted. “Sure, let’s spar,” he replied.

The two boys went into the sparring square. Though there were other watchmen sparring, when they came in, they paused to look at what the kids were doing. When they had realized the two kids were going to spar, they started cheering them on, some even betting on who would win.

“Hey, I’ve got 10 on the bigger one”

“The bigger one looks scrawny, I’ll take 10 on the shorter kid, I saw him practicing earlier”

“Are they really going to spar, haha this is cute”

YEAHH!!! GO REN!!! SHOW HIM THAT YOU’RE THE SON OF MASON!!

KIERAN! REN ISN’T ANYTHING, GO BEAT HIM UP!

They were going crazy. Kieran was a little shy, but Ren took it all in and embraced it. He was happy that people were cheering him on to win.

They got into their stances, and were ready to sprint at any moment. Kieran was in his stance that he had practiced earlier. Ren copied the stance that Kieran had. Ren instantly went for it, running towards Kieran. He lifted the spear diagonally to the right, before swinging it back down to the bottom left. Kieran dodged this by stepping back.

“Wait, how do I fight against a spear..?”

He could understand the gist of fighting against another sword, but a spear was different. It was longer, and you could fight at long range. A sword was a close ranged weapon, the spear was an advantage. As Ren kept swinging the spear, Kieran could only try dodging them. Sometimes, he would get close to getting hit straight in the face. Kieran gripped his blade and tried something. He thought of the spear as just a longer sword, and deflected it by hitting it. As Ren swung from his top right downwards to the bottom left, Kieran struck the spear, hitting it directly. As he rushed in, Ren instantly backed away and continued on his attack. Ren, despite not having the basics down, at least had battle instinct. He knew that if he didn’t back away, he might have been struck by Kieran.

Kieran started getting used to Ren’s pattern, striking the spear whenever it got too close. And though he did this, every time he would rush in, Ren would always back off and continue his assault. The crowd was going crazy. It was entertaining, a new watch. They had never thought watching kids fight would be so interesting. Gary watched the two boys as they continued fighting.

“They’re rough, but they definitely have talent… The potential is there. Maybe, just maybe, I could teach them?”

Ren had realized that Kieran was getting used to all his strikes, so he decided to switch it up. During their short training session earlier, Kieran was not the only one who watched the other soldiers train. Ren had watched a Watchman with a spear practice. Instead of swinging it around, he used the spear to stab. He used this idea in his strike. When Ren swung his spear and missed Kieran, instead of going straight to another swing, he threw the spear forward, throwing a stabbing movement. Kieran was caught off guard, and managed to barely survive the hit by reflex, dodging it by curving his body and pulling his stomach in. Kieran was in trouble, because Ren now had 2 moves. It was no longer just one pattern. With this, Ren could mix and match the patterns and even trick out Kieran. The whole match, Kieran had been on the defensive, and couldn’t find a counter attack. He was close whenever he parried a swing, but Ren would always back off right before he could get to him.

“Just what can I do..?”

The crowd cheered on, the battle still continued. As they continued fighting, Kieran had realized that Ren would always overcommit whenever he stabbed, always throwing his body too much. He realized that if he could somehow parry the stab, he could go in for an attack. He continued to parry and dodge all of Ren's attacks, waiting for a stab. He was trying to imagine how he would avoid the stab then go in for the kill. Could he dodge it then attack? Parry then attack? How would he dodge, how would he parry? In what way should he hold the sword, in what stance?

As he was thinking, Ren suddenly threw a stab. Out of reflex, Kieran tried to parry it, but the stab still went through. Though he didn’t- wait. Kieran thought for a second.

“Wait, even though I didn’t fully parry the spear off, it glided across my sword. What if I had it glide across my sword, then did an improv strike? Would that work?”

The idea he had was as the stab came in, he would deflect it and let it glide across his sword on his side. As it was gliding, he would pull up the sword above his head, and step forwards to deliver a strike. Both him and Ren were tired at this point. The crowd knew that it was coming to an end soon, and cheered louder.

“GO KIERAN!! STOP DEFENDING! COUNTER!!!”

“KEEP ATTACKING REN! YOU’LL GET HIM EVENTUALLY!!”

The two boys were at a distance, both tired. But unlike Ren who was just attacking randomly, Kieran had a plan. Kieran rushed in, holding a stabbing motion. Ren, who saw this, instinctively prepared to stab Kieran because he knew that the spear was longer than the sword. However, this was all part of Kieran’s plan. He made Ren do this, since he knew they were both tired, Ren would simply do whatever he thought of first. As Ren sprung the stab, his body overcommitting, Kieran switched quickly, the flat part of his blade on his shoulder, with the spear gliding across. As this happened, he continued his charge, with one foot stepping forwards, he brought the sword up. Though Ren saw this, his body was off balance, and he couldn’t back up in time. As Ren stared at Kieran, Kieran stared straight back into his eyes. Eyes wide open, full of focus, Ren was afraid. It was like staring at imminent death, time slowed down. Unsure of what to do, Ren closed his eyes, bracing for the impact, clenching his teeth. Kieran took one breath, then, in a swift, clean motion,

SWOOSH

He stopped right before he hit Ren in the head. Ren, noticing that there was no impact, opened one of his eyes, and realized that Kieran stopped right before he hit him. Ren fell to the ground, a little intimidated by Kieran. Kieran stood in the square victorious, panting and sweating hard. The crowd was silent, then in just a few seconds, instantly blew up.

YEAHHHHHHHHHH

WOOOOOO

Everybody was going wild. How did a 6 year old know how to parry? How did he manage to beat Mason’s son? How did such a small boy beat a kid 2 years older than him, when he had a spear? Because of the long reach, spears are usually very intimidating, but this child didn’t seem like he was afraid of it. Rather, he welcomed it, and watched it as he defended before his final counterattack.

The match was over, and the adults were collecting their money from the bets. Everyone was laughing and talking, but they dispersed slowly. The two boys remained in the square, one standing up, and one on the ground sitting. Kieran looked at Ren, who was on the ground breathless. He held out his hand to Ren. Ren looked up at Kieran, who was grinning at the boy.

“You weren’t half bad, Ren. Let’s keep practicing and get better”

Ren was instantly filled with a passion to beat Kieran. Kieran, who was younger than him, had become his role model. Ren took his hand, and stood up, and with a smile

“Yeah! I’ll beat you next time, just watch me! You’ll be in my dust in no time!”