Tale Of A Knight 5 Volume 1: Chapter 5- Training

"TUM TORUM TORUM TORU TORUM…."

Immediately he started playing nightmarish music intended to wake his apprentice up. It was the fastest way to do it and he had the perfect tool for that.

In Bakit's dream, he saw a symphony of h.e.l.l; breaking down upon him, every single note chasing him relentlessly until he realized it was no longer a dream. His eyes opened and he woke up screaming "AAAHH!" much to Mekros's amus.e.m.e.nt.

"Well, now that you are awake, let's begin your training!" Mekros said enthusiastically.

"Training?" Bakit asked still half-asleep.

"Of course, you are now my apprentice, which means you are a future knight in training. To make sure you become a strong knight you need to train hard."

"Why do I need to do this again?"

"The maid that was with you said something about night time visits…but I am not sure…"

Immediately Bakit put his hands upon his groin, shielding himself from the very scary idea.

"Ok. Let's go training then!"

"Glad you are enthusiastic about this." Mekros internally thought 'What in the world could she have told him to make him change his mind so quickly?'

Both of them went from the inside of the inside of the house towards the open area behind the house. Apparently, Mekros owned land that was used for farming, but right now they were going to use it as a training area.

Mekros brought with him a pair of wooden swords in a bag. He laid the bag on the ground. Seeing the expectant look on Bakit's face as he looked at the wooden swords, Mekros said "You have to stretch your muscles first before we can begin."

"Alright…" the hint of disappointment could be heard from Bakit's direction.

Mekros sat down on the ground, due to the strain of standing up while using a crutch. Then he proceeded to give specific instructions to Bakit about stretching arms and legs.

"You are going to have to have your palms touch the tip of the toe, that's it, hey, don't bend your knees…" What followed could be only described as excruciatingly painful calisthenics. Apparently Bakit never did stretching before, so doing it like this for the first time placed enormous strain on his joints and muscles.

The most painful were doing splits.

"You have to go downer, allow your legs to go opposite ways, feel the tension in the muscles, the pain, it is better to feel the pain now than feel it while practicing!"

"Easy for you to say!" Bakit said while doing the splits.

After a half an hour of exhausting stretches, it was finally a lesson of swordsmanship. Mekros tossed on wooden sword to Bakit, who clumsily caught it barely avoiding it hitting his head.

"Well then, show me what you've got!" Mekros said while holding sword in his right hand and crutch in his left.

"Are you sure about this? This might not be the best idea considering…"

"Worry not, just come at me as if I were not someone with a crutch, but a dangerous enemy instead."

"Alright."

With a sword clutched by both arms, Bakit attempted to swing it downwards in a large arc starting from the top. However, Mekros easily stopped him by hitting him on the head with wooden sword.

"Your height is shorter than mine, using wide swings leaves you with many opening!"

Clutching his head in pain, Bakit attempted a thrust with sword.

SMACK!

"Good offense, but you must not leave your sides open. The minute you let your guard down, you risk losing your life!"

Attempt at a horizontal slash. Mekros blocked it and with a forward thrust of the sword ended up making Bakit knocked back, clutching his stomach.

"Do not think that your opponent will stop with one movement. Just like you, your opponent wants to survive, so he will move to kill!"

Bakit now focused on his hands, tightly gripping the sword, he attempted a slash across Mekros's body. Mekros blocked the sword swing, and casually pushed Bakit away with his left palm, while holding on to the crutch with his armpit. This caused Bakit to fall down.

"Not a bad swing, but your leg work is sloppy. If you have both legs too close to each other then you will fall much easier. Have one leg to advance, while the other one supports from behind!"

Just like that, an attack after an attack was countered, Mekros casually explained the flaw of every single one, right after giving Bakit a smack for each failed attempt.

This lasted for at least three hours.

Bakit was on the ground, panting heavily. Nothing he could come up with worked against Mekros. The humiliation of being beaten up badly by a an old man with a crutch was rather intense.

"Well, it was not a bad first day of training." Mekros said triumphantly.

"All you did was beat me up" Bakit said while rubbing a sizable b.u.mp on his head.

"A warrior must learn with his body. If I taught you the moves I am comfortable with then it would not be suitable for you. Each one must develop their own style of fighting. To do that, you have to start with experiencing defeat."

"This wasn't much of defeat, you pretty much were toying with me, Sensei."

"Oh, Disciple finally has started to call me Sensei? I couldn't be happier with the results of the training!"

"You say that, but all I heard was you being happy about being called Sensei."

"Worry not, the first time sparring is always the worst. Depending on how much work you put into training, the results of the next time could be much different."

"Do you mean I can defeat you if I work hard enough?"

"Well, you have a long road ahead of you, then. Ha ha ha …"

Just like that, Mekros inspired respect from his reluctant apprentice.