章 27: Chapter 27
The next couple days Alvar threw himself into his training with a gusto that even surprised his instructor who thought he had seen it all over the years. His efforts to distract himself from the pain he still felt occasionally bore fruit though as Alvar gradually ascended from the pit of depression he had lost himself in.
When he wasn't training like a madman he spent his time either with his family or his friends Veli and Gerdi. One evening when they had met Alvar learned that the two had finally begun with their instructions into fighting with weapons.
Since Alvar loathed the time when he couldn't train, as ordered by his instructor, he proposed to spar with his friends, hoping to quench the rising memories in the back of his head whenever he had nothing to do.
Thus, the three began to spar with each other. Contrary to what Alvar had expected he came to enjoy their spars, though mostly because it amused him to no end to hop around Veli and Gerdi while the two tried to hit him with their wooden maces.
Their practise soon showed that the duo of Gerdi and Veli had a lot of catching up to do, which even surprised Alvar. He knew he had been training hard since entering the ranks of the warriors but he didn't think the gap in skill had grown so large in such a short amount of time!
After sparring with his friends Alvar usually went home and spent the rest of the evening with his grandparents. He loved spending his time with them as they must feel even worse then he did which provided him with the opportunity to help someone else in need instead of receiving all the attention and worry, which had slowly become rather annoying to him, even though he knew his friends meant well.
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Standing on the sandy training grounds Alvar looked down into his right hand, mustering the one-handed axe that was held within. It was a simple weapon, with a wooden hilt and an iron head. As his eyes went up and down the axe he wondered what uses he could apply to the form of the axe while fighting, his mind unconsciously wandering to the night he had seen his uncle use his own axe to hook a shield and removing the large protection away from his foe, the memory, even though helpful, bringing with it a swath of pain which he swiftly tried to supress by walking over to his instructor, swinging the axe lightly in his hand all the while.
"What do you think of the weapon?" Sjorn asked to which Alvar hummed in thought for a second, weighing its weight all the while with each practise swing from left to right.
"It's a simple weapon, no doubt but one cannot dispute its deadliness. Even though the sword feels more natural to me I think I could learn to love the simplicity of this weapon." Alvar said after which his gaze wandered from the axe in his hand to his instructor's face, waiting for Sjorn to say something in return.
"I thought as much. I myself have specialised in fighting with axes and you are correct that the axe is a very simple weapon. What many don't know though is that its simplicity makes the axe a very flexible weapon as well. Due to the axe having only a small part that is sharp you can use the rest of the axe for various purposes, unlike the sword for example. You can use the hilt of the axe for blocking, stunning, leveraging, breaking bones etc. How to do all that I'll teach you. Now, into position!" Sjorn said which confirmed Alvar's thoughts on the weapon.
Doing as he was told Alvar pulled his right leg backwards and lifted his right hand, holding the axe, into the air so that it was held at his side in a relaxed but not loose grip, ready to strike at any moment.
"Good. Now to the basics. We will start with axe on axe fighting so that you can get a feel for the weapon before we will add another weapon like a shield or so into the equation. Defend!" Sjorn said after which he attacked without a pre-emptive warning but Alvar was ready as he had learned to never let his guard down as soon as he stepped foot onto the training grounds.
With a swing Sjorn swung his axe from the right side to which Alvar dodged backwards, instead of stepping into Sjorn's guard, in order to get a feel for the distance needed when fighting with axes.
Alvar continued to dodge Sjorn's swings until he thought he had seen enough and decided to attack on his own after Sjorn had swung diagonally down upon his head. Stepping into striking distance Alvar raised his own axe and while putting his weight on his right foot attempted to block Sjorn's strike with the axe shaft, nearly buckling under the power behind the swing.
Gliding along Sjorn's axe Alvar made to swing his axe at Sjorn's neck but offset the power he would need to actually formulate a plausible attack with the axe, contrary to the sword which he had grown so used to using, thus enabling Sjorn to simple receive Alvar's attack with his gauntlet, blocking it away after which Sjorn stepped backwards and waited for Alvar to regain his balance, both knowing that Sjorn had easily won that exchange.
"Again!" Sjorn said after which Alvar nodded and this time took the initiative to attack the man with his own strikes. And so the two continued to fight for the rest of the day, ingraining every bit of knowledge Alvar was able to gather in such a short amount of time into his head until the sun began to set in the horizon and Alvar went home to spend the rest of his evening with his family.
クリエイターの想い 
bobbarker12
bobbarker12 Hope you enjoyed the chapter^^
On another note I've looked over the past chapters once more, correcting some grammar mistakes and putting in some cuts where the scene or viewpoint changes, as I was told would be helpful while reading.
cheers!
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