Boot Camp (SOLO)

The men were each paired by another knight in the room, whoever they were paired with would be their sparring partner for this training session. Saki was paired with the blonde man he was standing next to earlier, Saki clutched his blade's hilt with eager eyes. The blonde man noticed the look Saki had and tried his best not to seem too disturbed or creeped out. The Training Instructor, Torin, walked around the room to make sure everyone had a pair and that everyone was wearing decent protection. Once he made sure of this, he nodded and said:

"Fight!"

Immediately, Saki's opponent began to strike, he aimed for a horizontal strike across Saki's stomach. Saki evaded this attack by quickly stepping back and away fro the blade's reach. Once he had dodged, he stepped back in for a counter attack. Saki thrust his blade forward, quickly and smoothly, his target was the man's stomach. The man proved that he was a decent fighter with the blade by successfully completing a parry to block Saki's attack.

Oh boy, a formidable opponent! Saki couldn't help but lick his lips and smile.

The man came up with a quick counter attack, he pushed away Saki's blade with his own blade plus some physical strength. Once he had done this, he went try a vertical slash aimed at Saki's chest. Oh? What's this? This guy actually has some skill. Saki wasn't gonna lose to this guy, he was finally feeling the thrill of battle after so many grey and dull days! Saki sidestepped and dodged the slash and then went for a slash across the neck!

The man quickly responded by bringing his blade back to hold off Saki's attack.

"I thought all attacks in this session were meant to be directed to below the neck." the man would say.
"Oh? I wasn't listening. Thanks for the information."

The two would then engage in a chain of all sorts of slashing, thrusting, piercing attacks! Torin would observe from a far and nod before jotting down a few stuff down on a clipboard he was holding to keep track of the men's progress.

After an intense exchange of attacks, Torin blew a whistle to signal that the swordfighting session was now over. Saki's sparring partner put his sword back into it's scabbard before turning on his heels and making his way back towards Torin the training instructor. Saki, on the other hand, quickly went for an attack to the back which this man anticipated.

The man dodged it with a side step before turning to look at Saki who was now chuckling to himself and putting his blade away. The man was bit disturbed by this and sped up a little towards Torin. Once everybody was back in a shoulder to shoulder line in front of the training instructor, Torin began to speak.

"Splendid work everyone! Every man in here was showing off the fact that they really know how to handle a sword! Keep up the good work, lads. Now we must move onto the agility test."

Some of the men in the room were setting up hurdles for the guards-in-training to get over. This would be a test of the agility, a guard must not only know how to handle a blade, he must also know how to get over most obstacles which stand in their way. This was very important when it came to chasing suspicious men or thieves.

The guards-in-training waited for the hurdles to be placed properly, whilst they waited. They decided to chat amongst themselves. Saki decided to converse with his sparring partner, he seemed interesting. The blonde man noticed Saki approaching him and decided to start moving away but Saki quickly caught up to him.

"Now, now. I just wanted to talk... what's your name?" Saki would ask with a small smile upon his face.

"Johnathan." the man would reply, slightly showing that he didn't want to talk with Saki... but that's what made Saki want to talk to him in the first place.

"Nice name. You put up a great fig-"

Saki's reply was cut short as Torin announced that the agility test would be taking place right now. Saki decided to shut up and listen since he wasn't up for a long ass lecture from the instructor, plus his breath stank of fish.

"Alright, there are three sets of hurdles. I want you men to get into three lines and line up in front of each set. Once you have done that, you may begin training."

Quite straightforward orders. Saki decided to stick with his new "mate" Johnathan, he was the most interesting person out of the group of men currently in the room. Once the lines were formed, Torin blew a whistle and the men at the front of the lines took off. Jumping hurdle after hurdle, competing to see who was the fastest. Saki was next to jump the hurdles and after him, Johnathan. This seemed like a simple task, nothing new to Saki. His parents forced him to do all sorts of training. Once Torin blew the whistle the second time, Saki ran off.

He cleared the first hurdle, and the second one, and the third one, and the fourth on- Basically every hurdle except the last was cleared perfectly. The last one, he touched slightly on accident causing it to wobble but unfortunate, it did not tumble. Saki was the first to complete the hurdles, he has proven his ability when it came to agility. Now all he had to do was sit back and watch the other clear these obstacles. He kept a close eye on Johnathan. Something about him was different than all the other people in the room...

It wasn't long before all the men has cleared the hurdles, there were some failures and there were some who flew past with flying colors. John being one of them. Interesting. The men went back to line up in front of the training instructor who was nodding and looking at the notes he had made on a clipboard. Some men cleaned up the hurdles. Once every hurdle was back into the equipment closet, Torin gave his comments.

"Good work, all of you. Don't feel too down if you were unable to perfectly complete the hurdles, I was still impressed that you kept on pressing through and showed great resilience! All of you are doing absolutely fantastic at the moment, hopefully it'll stay that way through out this session."

As Torin continued to praise the guards-in-training, Saki noticed that some people were already at work on setting up the next course. From the looks of things, it looked like a strength test was coming up next, since the people were carefully placing weight after weight besides each other. After a few minutes, all the weights had been placed and Torin was coming to an end with his inspirational speech which Saki was not paying very much attention to.

"Anyways. Enough with the speech. Everyone make your way over to a weight. All of them weigh the same so it doesn't matter which one you choose."

Saki was the first to choose, he rubbed his hands together and looked down at the weight he had chosen. Saki knew that he wasn't the strongest person, so this strength challenge might prove to be more difficult for him than all the other challenges thus far. Once everybody was in place, Torin blew his whistle and off the men went. Saki grabbed his weight and attempted to pull it up, damn, it was as if it was glued to the ground.

"You're a tough little sucker, aren't you.." Saki would mutter with a grin on his face.

He looked over at Johnathan, he seemed to be making more progress than Saki. John was able to lift the weight just a tiny bit off the ground, the look on his constipated face was a clear sign telling Saki that he was struggling. Saki turned back to face his weight. What a drag this training session was becoming.

Minutes passed and still, no one in the room was showing any sign of lifting the weight. Saki had been trying and his palms were starting to collect sweat, loosening his grip on the weight. Great, this is just what he needed. He let go of the weight, took a deep breath...

and gave himself a huge punch across the face.

He needed to concentrate. Saki knew he had the potential to lift this weight of the ground, even for a short time. Ignoring the pain on his cheek, he clutched the weight and pulled upwards. Tensing every muscle in his arms, he pulled skyward. His muscles begged for him to stop, but he wasn't gonna listen. Finally, Saki was able to lift it up, but only for a short while before letting it go and dropping it onto the wooden ground below.

"You happy, old man..?" Saki would ask Torin.

Torin nodded. Now Saki was done with the test, he decided to lie down and relax. Soon, more and more people completed the challenge until finally, everyone had lifted it and returned in a line in front of the training instructor.

Saki was growing tired of all these tests, when was he gonna get another chance to battle John...?

"Splendid, that conclude toda-"
"Hold up. Everyone in this room is dead." Johnathan would say, interrupting Torin. John pulled out a blade and began to cut down the people around him.

Oh, so John was an intruder. Finally, the perfect excuse to cut this piece of shit down! Saki drew his blade, Viper and licked his lips. A fire was lit in those crimson eyes of his.

Shit hits the fan music

Saki's eyes were trained on Johnathan. He watched as John cut down every person beside him quite easily. Saki grinned, a challenge. Finally. Torin decided to interfere by charging in and flykicking Johnathan into a wall. Saki chased after Johnathan, he better not have been down after that kick! Sure enough, John was up. Saki leaped into the air and brought down his blade, Viper down towards John in an attempt to cut him in half. John blocked and the two blades collided once again.

"I'm looking forward to this." Saki commented.

John went for a horizontal attack which Saki dodged by quickly stepping backwards and then stepping back forward to make a counterattack. Saki went for the neck, John quickly ducked and dodged, he went for Saki's legs. Saki leaped up into the air, dodging the attack and then sent both feet into John's face. John stumbled backwards and clutched his bleeding nose.

"Y-You basta-"

He was cut off by Saki charging towards him with a bloodthirsty look in his eyes. Soon, the two engaged in a heated exchange of attacks. Slash after slash. The two would compete to see who was faster with the blade. John was winning so far however Saki wasn't one to play along the rules. Saki went for a sly kick towards John's knees. This threw John off his balance and tumbling down onto the ground. Saki would simply look down onto him with a smile.

"I'll keep your body in my favorite place. I can't wait to see what you have under all that armor"

Saki lifted his blade, John was disgusted and quickly got back into his feet. Swiping away Saki's attack with his blade, he quickly turned on his knees and ran. He wasn't gonna get caught by this bastard! Sadly, fate had other plans. Saki threw his blade, it dug into John's unprotected shoulder and caused John to fall onto the floor once more. Saki casually approached the downed man and pulled out the blade from his shoulder. He licked off the blood which coated Viper and raised his blade once more. He was about to bring it down but he was interrupted by Torin.

"Tch. Move out the way old man! OR YOU'RE NEX-"
"We'll take it from here. Resist and you'll be losing your job, house and be stuck behind a cell alongside this dude."

Saki looked at Torin with blank eyes. He sighed and put his blade away, It was too early to fight against the law. He just needed to do as he was told and obey. What a drag... At least Maria was still waiting for him over at the graveyard. As Saki exited, he could hear the men who were still alive clap for him. Geez, they sure were loud... but Saki couldn't help but smile.