First day of training (pt. 2 with zombies)

"Come on. Moving keeps you warm." I tell Samantha as I start jogging through the pine trees toward a fort. Then under my breath I do the warming incantation for us both.

"Umm?" She mumbles while looking at the circle. After a moment she sprints to catch up to me. After the short distance she is gaping for air.

"Oh dear don't tell me you can't run far." I ask slowing to a walk.

"Cold air... hurts... when I... run..." She says gasping for air. 

Samantha has her hands on her hips trying to slow her breathing. She looks up then starts jumping little bunny hops.

"You alright?" I'm a little concerned and confused at this point.

"Yea. Just wanted to check something." She replies quietly. Then she rubs her arms as if to warm up.

"Feeling cold? Don't worry we will be there in a few minutes." I wave my hand as if across a table in front of me. "Summon map."

A holographic map appears before me with a small arrow showing where we are on it. I see the patches of pines, trails and the fort we are heading to. Luckily we are not far from it.

"See? Be there soon." I say leading the way.

After a short jog, we are standing beside a large wooden fence. Large pines were cut to make this northern fort. Its not a village per say but travelers use it as a rest spot from time to time.

"You in there Phil?" I shout towards the top of the fence.

"Is that?!" A scruffy man with a metal helmet looks over the edge of the fence. "Oh thank heaven it's you!"

I hear his foot steps running down a stair case. He opens a little door in the side of the fence. There stands the short, lightly armored man and he gestures for us to come inside. He locks the door behind us

"I see you have company." He says leading us to into a shack with a firepit.

"Yea, Aba has me training. It's her first day. So where seems to be the problem?" I reply as we warm ourselves by a fire.

"They are to the North. Them dam zombies cut off the trade route to Moose Tracks village and Rabbit trail town. Those places can't survive without the lumber trade route bringing them in food." He looks sadly into the fire. "Some young'ns tried taking care of them but ended up...." He trails off. He sniffs hard while holding back some tears.

"My condolences." I say patting his back. "Alright girl, let's get this done before the sun goes down."

I lead the way out of the shack and she follows close behind. 

"A-are you sure I'm ready?" Samantha asks quietly.

"Yea you will be fine. The best training is by experience. Besides I'm here with you." I smile to reassure her.

"Oh okay." 

We head off on a road going North. I hand Samantha a stamina potion vial to drink to help with running. She holds the yellow vial up in the sun light. 

"It looks like urine but it's far from it." I snicker. 

When she opens it she sniffs it before slowly drinking it. She gags for a second then seems fine. While the potion is in effect we take off into a sprint to cover as much ground as possible.

"Looks like we are close." I inform her eyeing an over turned cart. "Let's look for some stragglers."

We find a half frozen zombie with a bag on its back stuck on a tree branch so it can't move. The thing smells awful even though its pretty well frozen. Samantha's face twists into disgust. She doesn't gag or scream though.

"You'll get use to the smell one day. Maybe. Now best to worst way to kill one is any ice mana attack, headshot or beheading, poison mana is lengthy then lighting and fire attacks come in last." I explain. 

"Mana?" Samantha looks at me confused.

"Oh its like magic but first you need to figure out the basics without mana. That's because you will run out of it and if you can't fight without mana than what's the point of being called a hunter?" I shrug and hold my hands out in a matter-o-fact way.

"Ah. So why is lighting and fire last? I would assume fire would be first because it won't leave much left." 

"The smell is awful with fire. It just intensifies everything. Lighting literally explodes them so then it's everywhere." I gag at the memory of one exploding on me. "Now hop to slaying it."

"Okay." Samantha raises the spear. Then lowers it and repositions her hands. Raises it again then lowers it.

"Let me help." I say walking up behind her. Reaching around I place my hands over hers to move them to a sturdy grip. "Now if you make a cut like this." I move the spear in front of where to cut on the zombie. "That will do the trick but you need to have the strength behind it. They can have tough hides."

I take a step back to give her space. Samantha readies her spear and goes through the motions I showed her but with not quite enough strength. The second attempt worked though.

"Good now get the one walking toward us." I point over my shoulder.

Samantha gets a concerned face but walks up toward it and then it lounges for her. Her steps faulter backward.

"Come on. You can do this." I say firmly to encourage her.

She makes the cut with with a little too much force and stumbles. The zombie falls motionless. 

"Good job. Now we have a few more that have joined us. I turn drawing my bow with a single arrow. There are 5 zombies stumbling in our direction. "Multi" I whisper the mana into the arrow. It cuts loose and splits into three taking out three of the five.

Samantha gets a glint in her eye. This is the most expressive I have seen her yet.

"Multi." She throws her spear. Not only did the spear not multiply. She misses the zombie. By two feet. Her face no longer looks determined but angry.

"It don't work like that." I chuckle a little. "Pull out a new spear. I'm going to have you take care of both of these."

The angry girl pulls a spear from the strap on her back. She jabs and swings til they both fall motionless into the snow.

"Here drink this." I throw another stamina potion at her. Then motion over my shoulder to the fifty some zombies stumbling our way.

"We attracted a horde. The best way to deal with these are run then circle around and picking off some stragglers til their numbers are dwindled down."

I take off in a run to lead the way. Samantha swallows the vial's contents and runs after me. She almost catches up but then turns around to look at the zombies. With a look of terror on her face Samantha bolts after me and nearly passes me.

"Time to circle. You're the one that's going to be taking care of all of these." I laugh to lighten the mood.

"WHAT?!" Her facial expression tells me she is panicking.

"Survive. You know how." Says a male voice faintly in the wind.

The young girl heard it too since she is looking all around. 

"I won't let you get hurt but you need the experience. Besides the reward is quite a bit of money and I will take you out to eat afterwards to celebrate." I tell her before starting our circle around the zombies.

My new trainee's face is no longer of panick but determination. There is a more calculated look in her eyes. She circles with me and stops right beside me planting her feet firmly with the two fastest zombies coming at us.

"Bring it!" She yells at them.