Nimmen went over to the middle of the room and beckoned for me to follow. “First off I’d like to get an idea of what you want to accomplish by learning to fight with the halberd. Outside of large battles it doesn’t give you much of an advantage over other weapons and because of this it’s not commonly used by any except parts of the royal army. So, if you’re aiming to become a soldier, I’ll tell you this now kid. It’s better to just sign up now. The training you get there is far more suited for you than the training I’ll give you is, if that’s the case.”

“I’m not planning to become a soldier” I speedily replied.

“Then what is it that you want to accomplish?”

“I just want to learn how to fight. So that I can defend my self if I have too and travel around without fear.” I moved to the middle and stood in front of him. “And I want to become a cool ass battle mage too, I guess…” I added quietly.

He gave me stunned look, then he started laughing out of nowhere. “Hahaha, that’s a great joke kid, but there’s such a thing as aiming too high.” He said between laughs. Then he calmed down a bit and looked at me a little more seriously. “I can help you with learning to defend yourself, but I’m afraid you’re a bit late if you want to become a battle mage. Even the freaking prodigies that get chosen for the elite corps start when they’re just little kids, and it still takes ages for them to become full-fledged battle mages. Out of them I doubt that there is even a handful that are around your age. If you start training now your hair will go grey before you succeed. Besides, do you even know any magic?”

“A little…” I mumbled, feeling a bit deflated.

At this he looked a bit shocked. “Seriously? Then what are you doing here wasting your time? You’ll be able to defend yourself much better with magic than a halberd if that’s the case.”

“It just so happens that my magic is more suited for being used together with a weapon. It’s as simple as that. Now, are we going to start or not?” I tried changing the subject.

Sighing, he took a step back and pointed his halberd forward into empty air. “Fine. As long as you’re paying it doesn’t actually matter that much to me.” He took an aggressive pose with his right leg behind his left. “What you have understand first is this.” He emphasized and swiftly traced a circle in the air with the halberd before he thrust it forward with great force. “The halberd is a swift and agile weapon. It may not look like it, but in many aspects it’s far quicker than, say, a longsword as long as you keep the weapon between you and your opponent.”

He went to wall and picked up a long wooden sword that hang on the wall and handed it over to me. I laid down my halberd on the ground and he instructed me to point my sword against him. He then took up a stance with his halberd opposite of me. “See, in this situation I’ve got the advantage with my longer reach. If you want to get closer, you’ll have to knock my weapon away. Go ahead, try it.” He encouraged.

I knocked his halberd aside with my sword, but he easily spun it around my sword and knocked it away and then thrust the tip towards me, stopping right before he hit my chest. Then he retracted his weapon and stood up straight. “When you’re fighting another opponent one on one, you’ll mainly be relying on your reach and agility to win over them. I know it’s not as satisfying as swinging with the blade might be, but in these situations thrusting your weapon is often more efficient. That’s not to say that you can never swing it around in wide arcs like a battle axe. Sometimes that extra force might even be necessary. However, in most cases that just leaves you open for attack. Your goal should always be to have your weapon between you and your opponent at all times.”

He then pointed to a long sheath he had attached to his hip. “Of course, sometimes your opponent might be smart and try to grab your weapon instead of just trying to knock it away. If you’re lucky and their hold isn’t good enough you can still move it around enough to get a good swing at their side, but at that point it’s usually just better to let go of the halberd with one hand and reach for another weapon.” He pulled out a long dagger from the sheath and showed it to me. “You’re definitely going to need one of these. Even if they haven’t grabbed your weapon it can sometimes be more advantageous to use this instead.”

At that I smiled. “I actually bought one yesterday.” Seems like it wasn’t such a waste buying that dagger. I did already have a couple of daggers in the storage but one of them was the size of a bottle opener and the other one was literally rusting.

“Good foresight.” He said as he picked up my halberd and gave it to me. “Let’s start with the actual training then. First of we’ll start with the stance. Put your dominant foot back and the other forward. In order to keep the point of the halberd in a position so that you’re always ready to engage your adversary you’ll need to hold onto the haft of the shaft with your dominant hand and your other hand further up. How far up depends on the situation, you’ll learn that as you train. With this grip you’ll easily be able to control the top of the halberd with your dominant hand.” He demonstrated the grip and manipulated the top of the halberd by shifting his right hand. I tried copying him and found that it felt almost natural to hold it like that.

“However, sometimes when you have to cut with more force it’ll be necessary to change your grip so that the dominant hand is above the other hand. Changing between the grips will feel awkward at first and you won’t be able to do it in a combat situation, but that’s just another thing that’ll come with training.”

I tried switching between the different grips a few times, and like he said it was a bit awkward. But I think I could get the hang of it pretty quickly.

He nodded favourably. “Good. Then we’ll start by just practicing some basic thrusts and cuts. We’ll wait with using the pick for a while.”

We spent the rest of the session practicing thrusting and cutting with the halberd. I think I got a pretty good handle of the grip quickly and Nimmen seemed to agree. At the end of the session I also felt that I could switch between the grips without it feeling awkward, although I could still improve the speed some.

I had hoped that Garlyn’s proficiency from the game would mean that I’d automatically know how to use the halberd but that didn’t happen. Although I’m sure that it made it a lot easier for me to learn because at the end of the session the basic cuts and thrusts felt almost natural to perform. Nimmen even said that it was obvious that I had trained a lot with the halberd when I was young. I wonder what he’ll say if I keep progressing at this pace though.

After the session was finished Nimmen asked if I wanted the halberd that I’d been using, and I of course said yes. I got to buy it for a bit over two gold, which he said was relatively cheap compared to other weapons. Considering that’s how much I paid yesterday for enrolling at this school and two weeks of training I didn’t think it was that cheap, but I guess weapons that are meant to last you a few years would cost a bit.

Nimmen also offered take care of the weapon for me until I’d gotten a permit for carrying it, but I told him I already had it handled. I didn’t tell him how though. Considering his reaction when I admitted that I knew a bit of magic and the fact that spatial magic was supposed to be one of the more complicated magics in ‘The Wayfarer’s Realm’, I thought it’d be a best to keep my ‘Dimensional Storage’ spell a secret for now.

After that I looked for the training hall that I’d paid a fee to be allowed to train in and spent a couple more hours there training what we’d done in our session earlier. After that I left the school behind and started moving back towards the inn for the evening.