Dungeon 42

Checking In

Jarod had been checking in with everyone else as they trained for the past month and a half. They'd all been doing well, though at what exactly varied. Watching Cord's training had honestly been a bit difficult, he'd never seen a man take that much punishment and live. Even knowing a potion would set it to rights, it had been hard to see a friend endure that.

Still, Cord had insisted he wanted to continue and Jarod respected that. Argent was off in the woods with his teacher, but seemed quite happy with the arrangement. Quint training was something he couldn't make heads nor tails of, not even when the other man tried to explain it. His eyes would glaze over at the very word 'formula' now, let alone the math involved.

Pip was learning, and his way of going about it was less worrisome now. He'd claimed down or whatever he needed to do and his new instructor seemed to know what they were about. Shael Phalanges Bloom was an elven woman with a pretty kind of gray color to her that showed hints of other colors in the light. Jarod made sure to keep clear of her or be as polite as he knew how when he couldn't.

He fancied her and she didn't have a title to complicate things like Dawn did as guild master. Still, given that she was a skeleton he wasn't about to try his luck.

"Breaks up," his current trainer called. Icarus Clavicle Emberheart was a halfling fighter who'd taken over for Jeffery Allen, a human fighter. Something which was normal in Jarods case, his trainer changed almost daily once he got the basics down. From there things had shifted from simple combat techniques to learning how to fight other classes and different beings like the halflings and eleves.

"Right," Jarod called, drawing his sword. His buckler was part of the armor so that it didn't come off. He'd have had to take it all off to remove it, and he wasn't about to do that for a short break, no matter how tempting. He didn't have it as bad as Cord who was sporting full plate but his mix of chain and plate was its own kind of heavy and hot. His helmet's padded underlayer went on next with the helmet last.

Ready to go, Jarrod stepped back into the training area and found himself immediately under assault. Icarus was fast, hitting light but precisely from a low angle that was hard to deal with.

Jarod gritted his teeth as he parried another of Icarus's lightning-fast strikes. The halfling's speed was incredible, and Jarod found himself struggling to keep up. He'd made significant progress over the past weeks, but facing opponents so different from what he was used to still threw him off balance.

"Keep your guard up!" Icarus barked, darting in to land a sharp blow on Jarod's thigh.
Jarod hissed in pain but forced himself to focus. He'd learned that against smaller, quicker opponents, patience was key. He waited, fending off every blow he could while tracking Icarus's movements, looking for a pattern.

He found it after another stinging hit, a slight hesitation before each lunge. Jarod feinted left, then brought his sword down in a swift arc as Icarus committed to his attack. The halfling barely managed to dodge, eyes widening in surprise.

"Better," Icarus nodded approvingly. "Now, let's see if you can do it again."

Jarod almost managed it a few more times, but the gap in skill remained even if he was improving. Even when he did manage a blow of any kind, there was a fair chance it would be parried. Despite the size difference, Icarus was stronger than Jarod would have thought if he hadn't already experienced it.

Finally, Jarod misstepped and caught a blow to the knee that put him in the dirt. Icarus didn't relent, the hits coming down like a landslide, finding gaps and digging into sensitive flesh beneath armor. The halfling wasn't looking to bruise like someone else in a spar would, he was going to wound.

"Fuck!" Jarod shouted in pain. A little chime sounded then and Icarus let up, not out of kindness but rather because a healing potion had appeared.

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"Break time," Icarus declared. Jarod didn't respond, rolling over to pick up the small bottle and bolting it down as quickly as he could. He'd need to clean his armor padding later, he could feel the subtle squelch of where blood had saturated it.

Really, he'd have changed it for fresh but knew that wasn't really acceptable in training. It was supposed to be as much like a real fight as could be safely managed, and that meant putting up with discomforts. That being stabbed in the kidney and bleeding out only rated as a discomfort was something best not dwelt on for the moment.

Jarod scraped himself up out of the dirt and made his way over to the rest bench. It wasn't fancy, but the shade it offered was divine after fighting in the sun.

"You're doing better. Just need to remember to use your reach advantage, but don't overextend," Icarus offered along with a cup of water.

"Right, it's difficult to not fuck it up, but I get what you mean," Jarrod agreed.

"Well, I'm rather obviously trying to make it hard on you. I've got a lot of experience fighting people bigger than me," Icarus said simply.

"Were you a mercenary or maybe a prize fighter?" Jarod asked, curious. Sometimes the skeletons would talk about their past in the guild, sometimes not. The stories were always interesting though and he wouldn't mind hearing about what a halflings life was like. He'd never even heard of them before coming to the valley.

"Nah, I was just a farmer till some bastard prince decided to pitch a war in the middle of my village. Grew dream weed and raised sheep," Icarus offered. "Set the odd fire too."

"Set fires?" Jarod asked, confused by that part.

"42 has a fancy word for it, arsonist. Kept it to abandoned buildings and such till that prince came along. Fought with a rival in our fields because they were convenient and didn't mind how many of us were caught up in the crossfire, so I went and burned down his palace and the city around it," Icarus explained.

"The city?" Jarod asked in surprise.

"Not immediately mind you. I was angry enough to hunt his men along with some other survivors for a bit, but they eventually lost the stomach for it," Icarus added.

"Well… You burned a city?" Jarod asked, not able to get past that part.

"Right? Lot of work to do that, but I was sick in the head. Not that I don't still like fire, I just don't think it talks to me anymore," Icarus explained.

"Oh," Jarod said, not sure what else he could offer but a noise to confirm he'd listened.

"Suppose that wasn't what you were expecting," Icarus commented with a wry grin.

"N-not really," Jarod admitted.

"Eh, we were all evil in life so most of our stories aren't exactly full of flowers and kindness. Though I'll say I deserved ending up punished more than most for what I did. It's different here though. I wouldn't say most of us are better people exactly, but we have more choices than before and fewer needs," Icarus offered with a shrug.

"That makes a difference, fewer needs?" Jarod asked.

"Definitely, there's hardly a reason to fight about anything in our case. We mostly do it out of boredom now," Icarus offered. Jarod just nodded, the thought having crossed his mind before if not quite so clearly. Someone who didn't experience pleasure from food or comforts wouldn't see a reason to fight over them. Or at least not a serious one, some people were just selfish dicks no matter their circumstances, so why people would fight would change.

"That's a lot to think about, and I don't have the mind for it," Jarod decided after a few moments.

"Can't say I do either," Icarus agreed, laughing.

"So, what happens tomorrow? Nobody's been willing to tell me who I'm training with," Jarod asked. Normally the week was planned out in advance but nobody had seemed to know anything beyond the second day and his training with Icarus.

"Ah, that's because you're not really training tomorrow. On your own anyway. You've gotten good enough that we're putting you back with Argent, Cord, and a few of us to do some group tactics training. Pip and Quint will join in once they finish up," Icarus explained.

"Really, that should be interesting," Jarod said, liking the idea. It had been a while since they'd trained together. It would be good to really see how much everyone had changed.

"Right? Bit past time in my opinion too. It's not like you'll be up against a dungeon that honors duels after all. You'll all need to learn to work together now," Icarus said. "Time to get back to training too. Up with you."

"Right, the dungeon," Jarod said, mood instantly plummeting. He had regrets, but not ones strong enough to try and get out of his contract with 42. That didn't make reminders about what he was going to have to do pleasant though. He got up like he was told, willing to continue if not exactly pleased.

"Buck up, that's a while off yet. Your only real concern right now is learning as much as you can and the fact I'm coming for your other kidney," Icarus said with a grin.

"I'm having trouble picturing this being the nice version of you," Jarrod replied flatly.

"I said sort of better, not nice," Icarus corrected. With that the fighting resumed and Jarod didn't have a spare thought for anything but trying not to end up gutted by the halfling menace in front of him. Something which might have been a fairly pleasant distraction if Icarus hadn't been serious about going for his other kidney. He was though.