Chapter 8

Picking his poison

During Silent’s walk with the Chief to his weapons room, he explained what each weapon the tribe uses and what their benefits were. “We have spears, like your father uses. These are generally good for straightforward attacks, you must learn to be both sturdy and fluid at the same time while using this. Another weapon we use is the long sword. This weapon allows you to use superior body strength to dominate an opponent, this weapon is also capable of some defense. The final weapon we use is the bow and arrows, these are obviously good for attacking while maintaining your distance.” The Chief finished as they reached the door, the Chief pushed it open easily and they walked in.

The weapons room was by far the largest room Sai had seen in the mansion. He saw far more weapons than the Chief described, but Sai knew that what he meant was these three weapons he mentioned were the ones that anyone in the clan actually used and could teach Sai how to use. This meant two things, first, Sai wouldn’t have any competition when he choose a handful of weapons that no one else uses, and last, Sai would have to learn on his own.

As Sai walked into the room, he saw a wall that had multiple weapons hanging on it, there was a series of spears that looked poorly mass produced, almost as if Tarzan were the creator, directly next to it was a series of longswords. All required two hands, all were far too heavy for Sai, and all of them had very little defensive ability, therefor, Sai’s worst fear would come true again. The last option was akin to a basket of wool next to a large number of tree branches. These bows were obviously unstrung so that they didn’t lose their strength later when they were used, but no matter how elastic a bow was, it also had the defense of a twig in winter. Sai thought back to how characters in comics used a bow, and remembered that it was almost solely used for long distance combat, but in close distance, it could be used similarly to a staff. Sai decided that while the other two weapons were not for him, the bow and arrows might be helpful. Sai continued to walk though, he knew that if he grabbed a bow now that the Chief would want to train him in specifically that. Sai had little to no desire however to train in a single style, His desire was to train in something that could help him to defend himself and his family from anything.

Sai followed the wall to the far side of the weapon room. On the side opposite the door there began a pile of weapons strewn on the ground, piled nearly as high as his head. This impressed him at first, until Sai noticed that almost all of them were medium length swords with the same insignia around the hilt. This obviously meant that a majority of these weapons came from a conquered tribe that specialized in broadswords, this also meant slimmer picking for Sai now. Sai rustled through the pile for several minutes, the Chief stood in the doorway and watched silently, muttering under his breath about how children never choose something easy. In the end, Sai found one that was perfect.

As Sai’s small body slowly climbed out of the pile of blades, scratches covering his torso, torn sleeves due to climbing through a host of daggers, knives, and a handful of wood axes that looked like they had no place in a room full of battle gear Sai had something in his hand. The perfect thing for him. A shield. It had a similar shape to a gothic cross. One where Sai could hold the shield in either hand while holding another weapon and still be able to see as well as attack with nearly no hinderance in movement. While this shield covered nearly his entire body, to an adult, it would have been a poor item. It would have barely covered their torso and only blocked attacks that were specifically on one side of them.

This was the perfect weapon, while it had very little attack power, it had enormous defending power. The shield itself was made of wood and stone. The wood was a majority of the shield, the stone however wrapped the shield, almost as if it bound it together, and it had a crest on it that was shaped like a waning moon. The Crest was not in the center of the shield, but on the left wing of it, as if the stone would cover the shield wearer’s heart if the shield were in the wearers right hand. The next thing that made this shield so perfect was that on the wings and bottom of the shield were sharp edges, as if it was sharpened in order to be used for attacking, the only side that was not bound in sharpened iron was the top of it. This was the absolute best option for Sai. He could protect himself behind this, and when he got larger, he can get a larger shield that would accommodate his increased size and strength, a shield made out of hardened steel meant protect against larger foes that look to harm Sai or his family.

Sai grew excited as he had grabbed his first choice, Sai then set it down near the center of the room and climbed back into the small ocean of blades. The Chief lightly yelled, to get Sai’s attention “Maybe you should pick from the ones that we can best train you in, you will definitely learn better from those.” His slight reprimand did not deter Sai however. Sai had his sights set on something that would be helpful as both a close range weapon and a mid range weapon now. Something that was long range would require Sai to put down his shield, and something that was exclusively short range would hinder his ability with his shield since it could be used for both attack and defense. What Sai was looking for now was either a whip or a chain that could be used similarly. In the end though, Sai couldn’t find anything like that. This meant that Sai would have to buy one or make one.

Sai’s thoughts behind a whip or chain were that if he had something mid ranged like that, he could use his shield close range, and use the other long range. It went further than that though. Sai also thought about how whips and chains could tie down opponents, they could essentially eliminate someone from the battlefield for at least a short period of time. A chain could tie someone down and used its heavy weight in order to hurt an opponent, while a whip used speed and its shape in order to lash and even cut an opponent. But the core of both was binding an opponent so that Sai could then close the distance and use his shield against them without struggle.

In the end however Sai had grabbed a blade that was attached to a rope, it could do the same job, but it wasn’t exactly what he had wanted. After grabbing that Sai went to the side that had the disassembled bows and grabbed a string and branch. Sai went back to the center, grabbed his shield and looked expectantly at the Chief, the Chief looked back at Sai as if Sai was crazy. He didn’t argue with Sai’s choices, but instead told Sai to follow him. Sai was over encumbered, and knew that the Chief was using this as a way to tell him to not overestimate himself. Naturally, Sai strung the bow and wrapped it around his collar similar to a satchel. Sai then had a free hand for his rope dart, and his other arm was covered with his shield. Sai followed directly behind the Chief into a room closeby.

Sai’s next experience would be to learn how to use what he had at his disposal in order to protect his family. More importantly, to never be trampled under the foot of anyone, ever again. The Chief opened the door to a large room that was covered in cloth suited scarecrows. A wooden sword was tied to their hands, and Sai knew that the Chief was making another point. That point being that the shield and rope dart weren’t practical to learn in our clan. “You can always use this room to practice your...uhh...weapon skills. I doubt that your choices will be very suited to this environment though.” The Chief said disdainfully, as if he was watching an oyster being split to find no pearl inside.

“You are probably right Great Leader. But since this is the only training room, I must do my best to keep up with my peers.” Sai replied, knowing that no matter how hard he claimed he would try, the Chief would still be disappointed.

“Then I will leave you to it, you may enter the weapons room again if you decide to change anything.” A hopeful tone in the Chief’s voice let Sai know that he expected Sai to follow the rest of the clan in practicing with a spear or longsword as well. A weapon that would be more primarily attack based, a weapon that would be more helpful to the other people in the clan.

The Chief shut the door as he walked out, leaving Sai in the training room with the sound of a single other person hacking and yelling at the far end. It was polite to take the furthest station to train at from the door, so people would know how many stations were left. From what Sai could see, the other person that was in the training room amidst nearly one hundred scarecrow shaped punching bags was at the furthest station. Sai walked to the very end, on the opposite side of the room as the other person. He pulled his shield up and began to practice.

Sai paid close attention to the other person while deciding on a good stance to properly carry his shield so that he could use it to its maximum effectiveness. Sai had found that he had also been paying attention to Sai, but rather inadvertently. The other cultivator would look during a particular spear flourish that he had not been practicing until Sai had taken his spot. This flourish looked almost like he had made it up specifically to attack people on all sides of him as well as to keep an eye on what was going on around him. After several times of spinning and whipping with his spear, he stopped. He just turned around and stopped facing his scarecrow like dummy, and watched as Sai hefted the oversized shield up and began swinging my dart knife around as if it were a yo-yo.

Sai had witnessed on a show in my past life that someone used this sort of weapon to wrap around an opponent, so Sai assumed that that was the best option for training, wrap the opponent with the knife. After a single attempt at this though Sai heard the other person in the room yell, “What the hell are you doing boy?” A simple question that required a three word answer.

“I don’t know,” Sai replied casually. He further explained, “It is my first time using a weapon, so I am still trying to get the hang of its particular nuances.”

“Damn right you don’t know. That particular motion you are trying to carry out requires a ton of practice with no one nearby, if you were to swing that knife around and let go a second late it could be aimed at the other side of the room. What you need to do if you are wanting to train in that damnable thing is go to the weapons room and get a throwing knife first. After becoming accurate with that then come see me again.” His rebuke stunned Sai, it also helped quite a bit. Sai understood the premise that accuracy was more important at this point than any kind of technique. If he could use the knife to do the most powerful moves, it wouldn’t have much point if Sai couldn’t hit the target.

“Thank you for your insight. I will do just as you said.” Sai replied, truly thankful despite his tone. Sai then did what the man had claimed Sao should do. Sai then grabbed a handful of throwing knives that were at the bottom of the pile of weapons, then Sai returned to the room. Sai grabbed the knife by the blade as he had seen on the internet in his previous life, then Sai whipped his arm down as fast as he could, letting go when It was nearly straight. The knife flipped end over end several times before crashing directly into the ground like a meteor.

“Is that how you plan on throwing your dart knife too? Are you gonna line up the shot? Flip it over and over? Hope the rope doesn’t get in the way of the blade or deter its destination?” More rebuking came from the man on the other end, it was obvious that he was enjoying himself. He seemed to know the best way to use both the dart knife and to use the throwing knives. He was the perfect person to be in this room to help Sai learn.

“How do you propose I throw it then?” Sai asked, hoping that he would show Sai.

“Like this,” he replied, a single second later, Sai felt wind brush past his face. A knife that Sai had never seen was embedded deep into the chest of the scarecrow. Sai had completely missed his instruction, but it left the impression that he would be the person that Sai would go to with any weapon based question that he might have in the future.

“Can you show me again, just slower this time?” Sai asked as the man walked over to Sai’s station, grabbed his knife and began to walk back. He assented and told Sai to watch carefully this time. Instead of watching the knife, Sai watched as he threw it. His entire body was put into it. The knife left his arm as if it really was a dart, he had a small amount of follow through. Sai memorized even the way his hip and foot moved as he twisted like a spring. Sai turned just after and again felt the wind drive past him as the blade sunk deep into the practice dummy. Sai had felt that it was his turn to try it exactly how the expert did.

Sai grabbed out his own knife, mimicked the expert’s motion, his footwork, his breathing even. Sai released the blade. Sai didn’t have nearly enough power behind it, but as long as it went the correct direction, it would be enough of a root to start growing better. It fell to the ground after missing the target by a single inch on the bottom. Sai pulled out his other knife to repeat the steps again. This time Sai was going to compensate for a few inches in order to stab it into the center of the practice dummy. The second time Sai had overcompensated and missed by nearly three inches in the on the top. This weapon was extremely finicky, even a slight change in any number of things and it would miss its target. The third shot however, Sai had stabbed the target right in the arm. It wasn’t a deep stab, but at least he hadn’t missed. At this point, It had become Sai’s goal to hit the target one hundred times at this distance without missing once. Only this way would Sai feel confident in changing locations to a further one.

After an entire three hours, wearing himself out several times with both arms, had Sai finally given up for the day. It had been a good experience, Sai had slowly begun to learn how to use a rope dart and he had partially mastered the throwing knife at just over two meters. In a few days, Sai was certain that he would be capable of hitting the target one hundred times consecutively.

As Sai started to wind up my rope dart and collect my throwing knives that person that was still practicing at the far side of the room returned. “Are you finished already?”

“Yes. I am still too young and haven’t built the endurance that I need to in order to do this all day like you.” Sai replied kindly.

“If you need any more help, you know where I am boy. When you finally master the throwing knife at the same distance that your rope dart can travel however, come back to me. I will help with that.” This person was extremely helpful.

“Can you tell me your name, or at least what to call you?” Sai asked him, hoping to learn more from my father about this comrade.

“Just call me Quartermaster. I am the keeper of the weapons and arms in our tiny village.”

“Yes sir, I am called…” Sai try to reply.

“I know who you are, the Chief thinks very highly of someone who has already embarked on multiple elements yet hasn’t even reached the age of seven, the age that we normally start you boys. I expect to see you here tomorrow.” The Quartermaster cut Sai off, then made him feel semi-threatened. Sai had planned on training tomorrow as well, but he hadn’t planned on training here, Sai had wanted to train in the outskirts of the forest so as to see if any of the elements he used would help him with weapons training. Sai hadn’t told him that though, Sai merely assented and put all of his weapons except his shield and bow into a sack and headed home for the day.