[Author's Note: Images of the weapons mentioned in this chapter can be seen here ]

Chapter 46: Combat Lessons

Lia had a huge grin on her face.

"Don't worry, I'll go easy on you", Lia said proudly as if she was a puppy seeing her new toy

"Teo do you want to pick a weapon?", Rowen asked

Teo looked at the rack full of wooden weapon. A bo staff, wooden club, a pair of bastons, a pair of tonfas, wooden shields and swords.

There was large number of weapons available for Teo to use, but none of them were bladed weapons. These weapons were clearly used for practice.

There were many swords available varying in different sizes. Teo considered picking a sword, but so many people use the sword. He wanted to use something different and saw the wooden club. It was looked easy to handle but a little bulky and there was only one of them. If possible, he wanted to use a weapon on each hand. Then he saw too pairs of short sticks. These were the bastons.

An easy to handle weapon, light and not bulky. It was the length of Gina's daggers so Teo picked these as his weapons.

After seeing Teo's choice of weapon, Lia picked the tonfa. It was similar to Teo's weapon except that the handle protruded out perpendicularly to the stick

Teo considered picking the tonfas as well but he did not know why it was shaped like that so he did not bother with it.

Lia on the other hand was familiar in using it

"Okay go up the stage, and begin. Lia, go easy on him"

Hearing Gina, both of them got up the stage and faced each other with some distance apart.

"Okay, Teo try to defend against Lia's attack", Rowen ordered

Teo took a defensive stance. Although it was his defensive stance it was just an imitation of Rowen's stance during the tournament. It was not as refined as Rowen's actual stance.

Seeing Teo's stance, Rowen felt a little proud.

Gina and Lia also had a grin. They both were familiar with Rowen's stance.

"Okay, here I go", Lia announced

She suddenly dashed forward, pulled back her weapon as she prepared to swing it at Teo.

Teo was surprised at Lia's movements, and although he saw her movements he stood motionlessly.

'Heh, this won't hurt a bit', Teo said as he stood preparing to block Lia's weapon with his weapon.

He didn't care too much about being hit, after all, Cien's tattoo was still on him. He was sure that it would protect him.

Teo moved his weapon to the path of Lia's weapons, but in an instant, Lia's weapons changed paths.

Instead of heading for his shoulders it moved to hit his abdomen.

Teo tried to move his weapon but his current speed could not keep up.

He did not brace for impact and trusted the tattoo.

-BAM!-

Teo was knocked back into the ground.

Surging pain came from Teo's abdomen. He was dumbfounded.

'Why didn't the tattoo protect me?', he wondered as he laid on the floor in pain

He realized that the protection from the tattoo was no longer effective.

'Is it because the old man is gone?', he wondered

Although he was not sure if it was the case, it was likely the reason why.

Lia stopped her assault and helped Teo up.

Rowen and Gina shook both their heads.

"Teo why did you not try to dodge it?", Gina asked

Teo heard the question and understood.

From start to finish, Teo had his feet planted on the ground. Although he tried to intercept Lia's attack, his feet did not move at all.

"I forgot", Teo answered

Although the attack was painful, Lia reduced her power enough that it was not too painful

After Teo recovered the roles switched.

"Okay, this time it's your turn to attack"

Lia went into a defensive posture as she waited for Teo's assault. Her knees bent, her weapons raised.

Teo charged towards Lia.

Although he charged with his top speed, it was still quite slow.

In Lia's point of view, Teo's speed was as slow as a turtle.

Teo swung his weapons. His left diagonally downwards, his right slashed horizontally.

With a minor adjustment to her footing and her upper body swaying lightly, she easily dodge both slashes.

Seeing his attack miss, Teo continued on.

Each slash did not contain any power behind it. It was as if a 5 year old decided to fight another kid with his open palms for the first time; A kid's slap fight.

After dodging over 15 slashes, Lia finally blocked Teo's bastons with her tonfas.

Lia's swing was much stronger than Teo's. It was a simple yet refined swing, at least compared to Teo's swing.

In a simple clash of weapons, Teo's weapon flew out of his hand and onto the floor.

It was clear that Teo did not even held his weapon firmly enough for Lia to easily disarm him.

Lia's attack did not stop there, it continued on towards Teo's shoulder but this time Teo braced himself for the impact.

-BAM-

Teo backwards 8 steps but for some reason Teo's face did not show any pained expression

'Weird, this time the tattoo protected me'

Although his body was blown backwards, he did not feel the pain he expected to feel. The only difference from the blow before was that he braced himself.

'Maybe it only works if I brace myself', he thought

He also noticed that a small chunk of his Qi vanished. Before when he could not even sense his own Qi, Teo could not even observe his own Qi but now he could.

Teo concluded that the effects of the tattoo only worked when he braced himself before the impact and the force negated by the impact reduces the amount of Qi he had.

After slowly figuring out how the tattoo worked, a smile appeared on his face.

Seeing this smile, Lia's body shivered

"....."

Lia stared awkwardly at Teo as he smiled after getting hit but after a while, Teo regained his composure.

The round concluded and soon it became Windle's turn.

Gina got a junior to be Windle's opponent.

"Windle, do you want to use a weapon?", Rowen asked

Windle took a wooden sword and a shield and asked

"Seniors, I wonder if I can use my elemental powers?"

"Oh?", Gina was surprised then looked towards Kali

"Kali, what about it?", Gina asked

It was up to Kali on whether or not she wanted to spar against an elemental power.

"Sure", Kali replied

She was confident with her skills. She walked up to the rack and took a shield and a sword as well.

"Okay you guys can begin, Windle focus on receiving her attack first", Rowen announced

"Here I come", Kali warned Windle

She rushed towards Windle. Although her speed was slower than Lia, it was still pretty fast for Windle.

Windle used his shield to block the attack as he attempted to dodge as well. He saw Teo's spar earlier and learned a few things before hand.

As Kali's sword clashed into Windle's shield, the force was strong enough to push Windle back 5 steps.

He tried to regain his balance but another strike was directed at his shield. He could no longer see his opponent as he was focused on blocking the strike. He got pushed another 6 steps backwards.

He gathered elemental energy and using his reserves and fire emerged on the floor.

The flames rose up forming a wall around himself biding time so that he could recover his balance.

Kali's sword slashed into the air with such a force that the wall of fire became unstable. Although Windle had practiced this move so he could easily execute it, his control was still lacking.

Seeing the flames becoming unstable with only her sword, Kali used her shield as a fan and pushed away the flames.

A slight opening appeared onto the wall of fire and Kali capitalized the small opening and struck down with her sword, hitting Windle's chest

Windle could not react fast enough. Although his wall of flames blocked outside attack, it also blocked his vision. He failed to notice the small opening in time and was hit.

Windle was slammed into the floor and the round was over.

The match only lasted 20 seconds longer than Teo's. Although Windle lasted a little longer, all he could do was defend. Mid battle he even lost track of Kali because his shield was raised so high that it blocked his line of sight.

After recovering for a while it was Windle's turn to attack.

Windle did not move, but instead several balls of fire appeared in front of him.

"Be careful", Windle warned as his several fireballs came crashing one by one targeting Kali.

Kali was dodge the fireballs that she could and used her shield to block the ones she couldn't.

After a short barrage, Windle's Qi quickly ran out.

The rounds concluded as expected, but Gina, Rowen, Lia and Kali gave both Windle and Teo advice.

"Teo, when you are holding your weapon, be sure to hold it tightly. If your opponent's strength is much weaker than yours, do not try to clash weapons head on", Rowen said

"Same for you Windle. You tried blocking Kali's attack with your shield. With just the difference in strength, your balance was easily disturbed. Try to feel your opponents strength, if its too great, dodging would be your top priority"

"You also rely too much on your elemental power. At such an early stage, your Qi will quickly run out if you use it too wantonly"

After a few minutes of lecturing what they did wrong. Rowen and Gina performed a light spar.

"When you are attacking, make use of your body's rotation. By rotating your body, you can easily strengthen your attacks."

"From the foot, to your ankles, to your hips, shoulders, arms, wrist and into your fists. No matter which weapon, this is the basis of your strikes"

"When up in the air, you can use gravity, your momentum or your opponent's own force to increase your strikes"

The spar was slow so Windle and Teo could easily see them.

"Try to predict your opponent's movements, with their stances you should be able to tell what possibly movements they can use"

Teo who was watching remembered the book he had read before. Within the Char village's dojo spoke of stances carrying a flow of energy. With relation to array and this lecture, he finally connected some of the pieces together.

"By carefully looking at the opponent's posture, you can easily deduce what they can do, but of course this is a little too advance for you. They could also use feints to try to fool you or elemental power to surprise you. You have to learn how to feel your opponents. Once you have enough experience, you will be able to generally tell when they are about to attack just by looking into their eyes"

The lecture was long, but was very educational. Teo and Windle both saw their own weakness. In just 1 year, they could no longer compare to Lia's strength. Windle slightly regretted not joining the Martial faction right away.

After the session, they all went together and ate at a restaurant. It was the same restaurant that Teo used to work at. Rowen decided to pay for it as to celebrate Teo and Windle's first spar.

"Sister Gina, Little Brother Teo", a man carrying food for the table approached.

He was a young student with dark brown hair and a plain looking face.

"Tony, did you cook these?", Gina asked.

Since Gina worked in the restaurant, she knew that Tony's cooking was awful.

"No its senior brother that cooked it", he looked towards the kitchen and a male student looked towards Gina's table

"Good", Gina said

"Ha ha, I know I can't cook. If only little brother Teo would come back, it would be much easier", Tony said as he laid each dish on the table

"Right, Teo is surprisingly a good cook. He would make a good wife someday", Gina teased

"Ha ha", Teo gave a small laugh towards Gina's teasing

During his one year of working in the restaurant, Teo easily learned how to cook and would often cook dishes for the customers with the restaurant's recipes.

....

The following day, after the inscription class ended, Teo asked Deacon if he could see the enchanted items he showed during the first class.

Deacon did not mind too much and allowed Teo, Windle and Lia to look at it.

Students should be learning through example. It would be beneficial for his students to study inscriptions created by others.

Lia and Windle looked at the sword's engraved inscriptions, while Teo was looking towards the pair of boots.

Using his eyes, Teo saw no invisible inscription on the books so he studied the drawn inscription onto the boot. It was a basic wind element inscription. He studied the function of the inscription. With his textbook, he easily understood what each symbol did and how the energy flowed throughout the boots.

....

A few months had passed

Teo, Lia and Windle's accomplishments within the inscription class had improved by leaps and bounds. Especially Teo, he was the most advanced student within the class. They learned how to draw as well as particular carving methods for the inscriptions.

Lia had already forged a sword for Windle, and with the three of them working together, had engraved an inscription on the sword. It was a medium ranked inscription that allowed Windle to be able to channel flame elemental energy into it, increasing its strength.

Lia had also forged a simple bracer and had Teo to help carve inscriptions on it. Teo was well versed in inscriptions. He had already memorized all the basic inscriptions as well as some medium ranked inscription. The only thing that gave him a slight problem was the placement of each inscription into a different quality material as well as its varying shapes.

"Senior sister Rowen told us to hurry to the headquarters today", Lia informed the two

"Hm? How come?", Windle became curious

Since their time at the Martial faction, they had always arrived at their usual time, but today, Rowen wanted them to hurry.

"No idea, she said we are going somewhere today but wouldn't tell me", Lia replied