“Short sword and buckler,” Ryan said. “How short are we talking about here?”

“Short, about the length of your forearm and hand. It’s not a weapon for pretty sword forms, it’s a tool for up close and messy work. Get in, stab, jab, wrench, chop, and then get out.” Kara punctuated her statement with creative pantomiming. “Being a skirmisher is all about getting in and either being a major inconvenience to draw attention, or causing as much damage in a short time before getting out. Your job would be to make the target worry more about where you’re at than the one they’re actually fighting, and the second they take their attention away, you jump in. You create openings, you wreak havoc, and you stay mobile and agile.”

Ryan crossed his arms and chewed his lip while he pondered Kara’s words. It sounded… gruesome. The way she’d described the role, skirmisher, was attractive though. There was just one problem.

“It sounds like I’d depend on a team in order to make this work. I don’t want to be tied down and having to rely on one seems directly counter to that.”

“You’d still be good solo, you would just have to adjust your style, such as it is. Right now you’re all guts, all in. With the sword and buckler you could still be that way, but you’d take a less direct route and maximize your defensive abilities for an offensive approach. Your mobility is going to be what makes this work for you. While a lot of Awakened have some type of movement power, very few have one that lets them physically skip the space in between them and their target instantly. Even Lancer with his lightning nonsense takes a second, and even then you can see where he’s going to end up. You, however, just poof out and poof back in.”

Ryan paced around for a minute, thinking about what he wanted. Aside from the time he’d already spent learning the spear, there wasn’t any reason he could think of other than sentimentality to continue to use it. As long as he could continue on his path he was fine with whatever, but he just couldn’t shake the feeling that it wasn’t worth it.

“You still seem unconvinced. Look, let’s go find Lancer. He’s an expert in the spear and he’ll probably tell you something similar.”

Ryan agreed, and they set off through the Guild manor to find Lancer. They searched through the first floor lounge areas without success, then made their way into the cafeteria where they found him packing away food like a starved animal.

“I didn’t actually see Ryan fight,” Lancer said in response to their question about picking up new weapons. “I’d have to see you do some spear work, or maybe have a spar, like a real spar though, not form practice.”

“That’s fine, you have time right now?” Ryan asked.

Lancer looked down at his plate, clearly reluctant to cut short his feeding frenzy, then nodded. They waited for Lancer to clean up his plates before heading for the door to the hallway leading back to the front entrance and the training yard.

Halfway down the hall, Ryan spotted Destin’s intricate wooden feline construct sitting and blocking the way. Ryan gave it a friendly nod, not sure it had its own mind or if Destin looked out through its eyes. When he tried to sidestep around it, the cat blocked his way. He tried going the other way, and the construct blocked him once again.

“Let’s wait here a minute, Destin is probably coming to talk to us,” Kara said. “Destin likes to use his cat as a nuisance to hold people up instead of just finding us himself.”

It only took a minute for Destin to emerge from a nearby hallway, and he beelined straight toward the group. His blonde hair and blue eyes were as striking as ever as he strode up.

“Sorry to hold you up, but I have your reward for this morning and I didn’t know if I was going to see you around again today,” Destin said as he pulled out a large clinking leather purse.

“Reward? I didn’t know there was a reward. Where was that posted?” Ryan asked.

“Brady had the foresight to go to the Administration mission board to look for related happenings. He matched a few of the posted missions to the smugglers and collected a fair sum earlier, but gave it to me and said to split it up amongst you all. So here you go, you each get 20 silver.” Destin counted out 20 silver coins to each of them. “Joy gets a share too, but he’s out doing whatever it is Joy does when he’s not working, so I’ll have to track him down. If you see him, tell him to come find me.”

Ryan watched the cat construct and Destin disappear back into a side hallway and looked at the coins cupped in his hand. He hadn’t even counted the purse that he got from the man he fought in the alley the previous day, and he’d already made a little more money unexpectedly. Taking the purse out from the spot on his belt where he’d stowed it, he crammed the 20 silver in with whatever else was in there. It was a close fit.

Ryan still wasn’t sure what the value of the coins was. Mags had handled all the finances and purchasing, so he’d never got a sense of what he could buy with silver. Was 20 silver a lot? He put it out of his mind for now and looked at the others, ready to get some exercise. They nodded and made their way out to the training yard.

Lancer grabbed a couple of spears and spent a second gauging their weight and balance, before nodding and handing one to Ryan. As Kara stood to the side in the manor’s shade, Ryan and Lancer spent a few minutes warming up and stretching. Ryan felt limbered up and took up a ready stance.

Lancer shuffled forward in a balanced stance, sending out quick jabs with the tip of his spear. Ryan sidestepped a few, deflected others, and otherwise played defense while his muscles caught up with his brain.

They increased the tempo, attack and defense speeds ramping up. Lancer switched from probing attacks to more committed attempts at offense, and Ryan did his best to keep returning pressure and taking advantage of openings when they appeared.

Ryan could tell that Lancer was holding back, and that he was much better than Mags. Ryan did his best to make a good showing, using all the good spear techniques that Mags had drilled into him.

Lancer paused for a second. Ryan looked up to see him look in Kara’s direction and give a slight nod. Before Ryan could so much as acknowledge the nefarious mid-fight communication, Lancer exploded into action.

Lancer grinned and his spear blurred in Ryan’s vision and he backpedaled and swept his spear furiously back and forth, trying to keep Lancer’s spear from landing. The attacks quickly overwhelmed him and he found himself on the verge of retreating and conceding, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it.

He didn’t mind losing in a spar, but the smarmy grin and apparent expectation of Kara that Ryan was going to fold like a wet paper bag put his back up. Gritting his teeth, he tried to maintain a semblance of defense as Lancer picked him apart.

He’d had enough. Ryan planted himself on the balls of his feet and launched himself directly into Lancer’s spear with his own, tangling the two weapons up in a clinch. Ryan used the brief opening he created to use the only other weapons that he had free; his legs. He viciously kicked at Lancer’s feet and legs, landing two severe shin kicks before Lancer broke away.

Ryan didn’t give him an opportunity to recover and again rushed in, using the spear to hinder Lancer’s movement instead of outright attacking. He threw in knees and elbows, and levered his spear into awkward positions to enable more kicks. A grin stretched across his face; even if he wasn’t winning, he was fighting.

He kept up his attack for as long as he could hold on to his momentum, which didn’t turn out to be very long. Lancer neutralized Ryan’s tactics with some fancy footwork and bolted back out of range of Ryan and his spear.

Lancer laughed, a short crow, and nodded to himself. Before Ryan could rush in again, Lancer’s spear once again blurred in his vision, but Lancer himself followed suit.

Ryan felt a sharp slap and pain on the back of his knees, then another on his chest, and as his body tumbled to the ground, another light tap on his forehead. He laid there on his back, heaving in air, and laughed. He’d lost spectacularly. Lancer was worlds above him in skill, but right before the end Ryan had gotten in his own shots.

A shadow fell over him and he looked up to see Kara staring down at him lying in the dirt. Ryan sighed and dragged himself into a sitting position. Kara reached down to help him to his feet, and even charitably brushed off some more obvious dust.

“So was it like I said?” Kara asked.

“Yeah, pretty much. He’s fine until he’s pressured, then abandons spear techniques completely and goes full blown pit fighter. It was quite good, actually. If we’d been more even in speed and strength, it would have turned into something dangerous.” Lancer set his spear against the wall and stretched out his shoulders. “You said you wanted to give him a short sword and a buckler? I think that’s a good fit. Of course he could be trained more into the spear, but it’s better to train for something you’re naturally inclined to do than to train it out of you. He can get right in there and whale away all he wants. Without considering his abilities of course.”

“Ryan, you’ve already got the ‘jump in’ part down. With a little more practice, you’d have the ‘get out’ part as well. It just suits you,” Kara said.

“I get it, no need to convince me anymore. I felt it as soon as it happened, and you’re right. I’m basically just a sloppy pit fighter. Even when I was training on the farm, I would resort to it if it wasn’t going my way.” Ryan said, chuckling at his self deprecation. The recent thrashing at the hands of Mags in the farm compound courtyard was still fresh in his memory. He’d done the same thing there, with the same outcome.

“Ryan, someone like you doesn’t need to be a weapons expert, you just need to be good enough to sync your abilities up with them. There are basically three types of fighters with Keys. Those who don’t use weapons, like me. Those who depend on weapons, like Lancer. And those who use weapons only as a focus for their abilities. That’s you, unless your power gives you a weapon like Lancer, but that’s unlikely.”

“I get what you mean by not using weapons at all, but I’m not sure what the difference is between being weapon dependent and only using weapons as a focus. Seems like the same thing,” Ryan said.

“I’ll show you the difference. My case is extreme, but it’s not uncommon to see people similar to me.” Lancer stepped away from the manor and also put some distance between them.

“My powers grant me a lance, so my weapon choice is natural, but also all of my powers originate from my lance; every single one.”

Lancer turned away and held out a clenched fist, from which sprouted the same sizzling blue lightning lance that Ryan had seen early in the morning. If it wasn’t the ease with which Lancer maneuvered the comically oversized thing, Ryan would have laughed at the impracticality of it. Instead, Lancer held it underhanded with both hands and made five rapid thrusts into the air of the courtyard. Five bolts of blue twisting lightning arced out into the courtyard and connected to the ground, where they writhed and crackled before snuffing out.

Ryan’s ears buzzed, and afterimages obscured his vision. He popped his ears and blinked to get rid of the aftereffects, and had only just succeeded when Lancer thrust his lance out from his chest one-handed. His body exploded with that same lightning, and dozens of small tendrils twisted their way across the courtyard.

Before Ryan could focus on any individual tendril, Lancer disappeared into a pulse of light that raced away, only to explode back into himself on the other end. Without missing a beat, he thrust the butt of his lance into the ground and a sparkling bubble of electricity exploded away from his body with a sharp zap, quickly gaining intensity before fading away.

To finish his demonstration, Lancer launched his weapon at the far wall like a ridiculously oversized spear. The lance took a flat trajectory and writhed its way across the courtyard and embedded itself into the wall where it faded out of existence.

“That is what it looks like when someone depends on their weapon. There are other ways it can happen, such as Affinities that are directly weapon related, but it manifests similarly. To show you what it means to use weapons as a focus, which almost any Awakened who isn’t like me can do, I’ll have you do it yourself. Go grab a shield from the rack.” Lancer walked back to the group, breathing hard.

Lancer’s choice of clothing made total sense, in retrospect. He was still decked out in thick and tight leather with buckles securing anything loose so it didn’t flop around and get in the way, or become a lightning rod. Ryan looked down at himself and sighed. Aside from his cloak, which he loved, he was still in the same drab clothing he’d changed into after his arrival. He’d have to look into a wardrobe upgrade, maybe some armor.

Ryan brought his mind back on track and went to the weapon rack, looking for a likely candidate for a shield. Choosing a small circular wooden practice shield, he walked back to the group.

“Many attack and defense abilities can be used with a focus, like a shield or a sword. Sometimes it’s possible, but you shouldn’t because it’s a poor match up, but you have two shielding abilities so it’s perfect. If you don’t already know how, all you have to do is dive into your Core and look for it, just like learning anything else about your abilities. This is low hanging fruit though. Most learn it pretty early after they get their powers,” Kara said.

Ryan did as instructed. His Core waited for him in the center of his aura, and he dove in to explore what the connection said about [Warp Wall]. Like the first few times he tried to discern the strange hints that pushed at his consciousness, there were a few that he could almost understand, but many that felt so far away as to be invisible.

He focused his thoughts on augmentation, but only those too far away to grasp showed any response. Changing tactics, he focused on the concept of extension. Same result. The responses gave Ryan clues about what kinds of things he could expect in the future, but were still beyond his understanding.

Almost ready to give up, he focused his thoughts into a sense of self. The wooden shield was supposed to be a focus, but it was still himself that produced the ability. Immediately, a vague cloud of ideas close enough to touch lit up in front of his consciousness. He reached out to grasp it and it flooded his mind with a sense of oneness, of extending his sense of self beyond what his skin tried to define it as.

It was actually pretty simple. Ryan held the shield out in front of him and pushed [Warp Wall] through the wooden shield, trying to recreate the feeling that his Core had given him. At first the ability struggled to manifest, flickering in and out, before solidifying.

He couldn’t tell the difference. The ability felt the same, just channeled through the piece of equipment on his arm. Confused, he walked over to the manor wall and did what he’d done that morning; he leaned into it with his power.

The difference was apparent. Before, the feedback from the ability fed directly into his arm. During the morning raid the effect was that all that force bleeding through his power was channeled directly into his arms and legs. Now, though, the wooden shield acted as a buffer and spread that force out over a wider area.

Ryan could see the benefit. It wasn’t such a big difference with [Warp Wall], but with the point defense ability it would make a world of difference. He turned toward Kara, already getting ready to cast the point defense.

“Kara, punch me.”

Without hesitation, Kara leapt forward with her fist cocked and threw a haymaker backed by the full power of her Bronze ranked body. Ryan nearly panicked. He hadn’t expected her to be so eager to clobber him, but remembered the point of the exercise.

He intercepted her powerful punch mid air with his point defense shield. The impact produced a small shock wave, and the force fought Ryan’s energy for supremacy. Predictably, Ryan lost and much of her power bled through his defense.

Contrary to his severe injury from the morning though, the wooden shield focus buffered away and spread the excess energy, almost eliminating the pain and leaving a mild but uncomfortable buzz in his arm. Well, at least he’d come up with a name for it; he’d call it [Interception]. It carried unfortunate sports connotations, but he could live with that.

“I’m sold. I think between my two shield abilities, having the buckler as a focus is enough to tip me over the edge. Let’s do it.” Ryan turned and returned the wooden shield to the rack. The buzz in his arm had already faded, reinforcing his decision to take the leap to new weapons.

“Good. I don’t think you’ll regret it. You’ll need to talk to the quartermaster, he’s the one who keeps the skill stones for the Guild. Good luck though, he can be difficult to work with,” Kara said.

“We done here guys? There is food waiting to be eaten, and I’m the guy for the job, so if you’ll excuse me I’ll see you two later.” Lancer was already halfway to the entrance before he finished talking and disappeared out of sight with a wave.

Kara snorted. “He’s ridiculous. Let’s go find Old Ben.”

“Well, this should be fun,” said Ryan, following Kara through the front entrance.