The last lesson was explained very fast. 'Fully accept your instincts, let them lead you - but never let them control you', easily said, easily understood. To actually do that is the real problem after all.
As I have no idea where to begin I wander around, visiting the colorful gardens, the large dining rooms and the outsides. At the exit of the castle, there was a small unoccupied field, which was left open for us to train in.
I couldn't really use it, because the queen fully used my time. My strength didn't fall or anything, but my friends weren't for me to see either. Up to now, that is.
Rhage and Christian were training on that field and interrupt their training to meet me. After a lot of unstructered, incomprehensible babbling I stop them.
Rhage was the first one to speak again, now calm again.
R:" Hey Cecil, long time no see! Good to see you well"
Ce:" I wasn't away that long!"
Ch:" You were gone for two months now, if you didn't suddenly get immortal that is quite some time!"
Ce:" I was in there two months?!"
R:" Yes, the queen told us what you were doing, but we had doubts"
Damn, two months was a long time, especially in a war! Better get to my point then
Ce:" So, today I had my last lesson. I didn't yet fully understand."
R:" You are here for advice?"
Ce:" Yes"
R:" Too bad that the queen forbid us to say anything. Keep trying, you will understand"
A little bit sulky I leave. haven't I followed my instincts in the dark cave the whole time? How doesn't that count? I only had my instincts to spot enemies anyway -
No. I also heard them, was that the problem? Was I supposed not to focus on one of my senses? Right, in bright daylight just focussing on my ears was dumb. It might even get me killed.
Isn't the main goal to make an instinct of all my senses, then? I thought for the rest of the day, how to train my other senses to instintive level. The conclusion I came up with was to disable the other senses, while I train specific ones - then step up with two senses at a time and so on.
My eyes were trained pretty fast. In a swordfight you weren't able to react with thoughts, so instinct kicked in very fast. My sense of touch was aggrovating to train, as some points of my body had reflexes on their own. My knee was very problematic for example.
In the end I got that right, too. I had to ask Rhage to train with me, while I had my eyes, ears and nose covered. After the first six spars, I was able to feel the breeze of the wooden sword before it hit me. On that point I proceeded just like I did with my ears.
Training to further use it, while no longer focussing on it. After seven more spars I beat Rhage several times in a row. My progress was fast, but the hardest ones were still before.
I trained smell with Servve, as he was the only one who was content not to shower, in exchange for fights. The others were too dignified.
This one was very hard to train, as I had no real point to start. After a few beatings, let it be twenty I smell a small fragrance of wood. The sword, I think and dodge. I don't get hit. Then I proceed to smell Servve, but can't make out his body parts. The spell that prevented me from using my sense of touch wore off, so the breeze I felt was a better indicator.
So using the breeze I feel to spot his movements and my smell to locate his body, I land my first hit. After a few days of training I was able to keep up, but I couldn't beat him at all.
Just using my smeel and sense of touch, this was a fine result. Next up was my taste.
How am I supposed to learn taste?! Taste is of no use in a fight! Wait, instincts aren't limited to fights at all - this was preventing me from sleeping for a few nights after all!
I try to convince the kitchen staff to give me slightly poisoned food, causing slight pain or similar, then give a few plates to me, some posioned some not. The learning process was... unpleasant.
Apparently, the poisoning they gave me was a digestive one. Now more motivated to learn fast, I fastly pick up the small taste of the poison. Then I combine it with smell, which raised my quota of being posioned to zero. Even after asking for more diverse poisons.
My senses were now complete, putting them in use alltogether was the easy part now. I just fight against Rhage, Christian and Lyght at the same time.
Inbefore I hated fighting against Lyght, because I couldn't keep track of him at all. Now, I knew where he was without even looking. If he didn't make sounds, I smelled him. There was no way for him to leave my tracking, without also leaving the fight.
Rhage and Christian were attacking frontally, while Lyght sneaked up behind me.
I turn around to block the stealth attack first, it was times slightl earlier. Feeling the breeze of a hit was pretty useful, so I new where exactly the dagger was, kick it out of his hand, then hurry to leave the radius of the other two, as I pick up the sound of them jumping.
I hide behind Lyght, then slide my sword over his throat to symbolise his death, it didn't really do anything but give him a splinter as it was a wooden sword.
I now saw Christian and Rhage again, and proceeded to make the two vs one fight, a one vs one but two times. To split them up, I keep track of their swords with my eyes and use the opening they give me to run through the space betweeen them. The two were still in the air, so I simply turned, while sweeping my sword at the height of their neck.
Easy to know where it is, if you remember how tall they are and hear them landing.
My sword strikes Rhage down, making this a one vs one, just as planned. I ran past him, acting like i gave an opening to him, so he would strike carelessly, I parry and use my elbow to knock him out. this was pretty useful!
The moment I won that fight, the queen called me once again. When I arrived, the queen proceeded to tell the story of my father. How much faster I was, how much stronger.
She then told me her name, Iris. I wasn't allowed to use it in public, but at least I know it now.
Then the story of my father turned a bit, when my father reached the point I was on now. My fathers body was unable to grow to his full potential, due to the way of understanding his instincts he chose.
I wonder if mine was better then, was my thought, as Iris told me of a medicine, which is able to make instincts stronger. She asked me if I was sure to be in full control of my instincts.
Yes, I told her.
She gave me the medicine