Extension

by Vladislav Kamenskiy

  “Oh, you're still alive,” Skull hemmed. "Well, we will quickly fix it now. It's an opportunity to use a new staff."

  He pointed at me with the staff and shot a fireball, which was three times bigger than usually. I burned down immediately, then I came to consciousness in the village and went to the public house. Salazar with his group, Lera and Gunther came there on the next morning. Gunther died the first time and he has a second life. Salazar gave him money, and Gunther hired me and Kyle again. We reached Grink together. We bought horses there and went to Arven. We didn't meet any tenants on the streets. When we entered the Throne Room, Grock and Skull were already waiting for us there.

  “It's a bad idea to sit on my throne,” Gunther said coldly.

  “It's not your anymore,” Skull answered cheerfully. "When the King dies, city becomes free and anyone, who can kill the main guard and complete a small quest, can become the King. As you probably understand, I managed to be the first to do it. I could order the city guards to kill you all, but that wouldn't be interesting. Grock, what do you think?"

  “You managed to run away from me, Salazar." Grock chuckled bloodily. “No one will give you this opportunity here! We will finally find, which group is stronger."

  "Guard, close the door and exit!" Skull ordered the city guards.

  “You better didn't do it,” Gunther shook his head. “You had at least some chance with them...”

  "We'll see," Skull smiled and raised his new black staff. "You talk too much..."

  “Let's fight,” Salazar shouted and fired at Grock.

  “Nice try,” Grock hid behind the huge black shield. He wore a heavy dark blue armor and a helmet. He held a long sword in his hand. "Is it hard to fight when an opponent is equipped as well as you?" Grock asked. He put a shield in front of him and ran towards Salazar, and his archer and magician were already firing at the group.

  "Come on," Skull called us with a hand gesture.

  Kyle fired two lightning and fireball at him. He drank Gunther's pot. But Skull made a dome of lightning, so all Kyle's spells were broken. Then Skull took off the defense for a moment and used two spells. A huge ball of fire hit Kyle and he burned. I didn't manage to get to Skull and the second spell hit me. It was a small whirlwind that whirled me, broke all my bones and threw me away.

  "What happened next?" Alex asked.

  "I don't know," Turk shrugged his shoulders. "I revived in the starting location, came to the public house and waited for the tenant. Then you came."

  “What are we going to do now?” Alex was really confused.

  “Now you're the leader,” reminded Turk. "Command!"

  Chapter 9

  “Okay, you said enough,” Alex scratched his head thoughtfully. "And, honestly, it only got worse and even more unclear after your story."

  "Please, forgive me, tenant," Turk lowered his head sadly. "If you order, I will go to the capital and try to kill Skull, because your levels are still too low to do this."

  “Well, you spoke about the Coach. Can you show us where this location is?" Alex asked.

  “I think so,” Turk shrugged his shoulders.

  “Let's go to the Coach and upgrade our levels,” Alex decided. "We have some money left after your hiring, and I see you are well-equipped and you do not need equipment.

  “Should we go now?” Turk looked at Alex. When he nodded, Turk stood up and went to the exit.

  They found three two-storey houses in half an hour. Alex was cheered up at first, he hoped to upgrade himself and his assistants immediately to high levels, but when he saw the prices, he realized that it was impossible.

  “We have enough money for four lessons,” Alex said sadly. "I won't train Turk, because he's already at Level Seventeen. Trix and Rina, I will pay for one lesson for each of your."

  "Yaay!" The girls shouted cheerfully.

  “Wait for us here,” Alex said to Turk and headed toward the houses.

  Firstly, they went into the house, on which the star was painted. A girl in white trench and a boy in red trench met them there. Alex said that they need to train a battle magician, so the girl left and the boy took money and asked strangers to go away. Trix and Alex went to the next house, on which there was a picture of sword and bow. Men and women of average height met them. The man wore light chain mail, and the woman wore a leather jacket. Both had short black hair and brown eyes, this pair looked unremarkably.

  “I want to buy a workout for two,” Alex said right away and gave money.

  “Your assistant can go upstairs,” the man said, hiding money. "And you should follow me."

  "Can I go?" Trix asked, glancing at Alex.

  “Go and study well, so that I wouldn't regret about the money I spent,” he nodded and Trix went up with the girl along the small stairs, leading to the second floor.

  “Let's start,” the man opened the door and stopped, inviting Alex to go in.

  "To be honest, I have never trained and I don’t know how to start..." Alex began to justify himself, but he entered the room and looked around the hall. High windows on one side of the room provided excellent lighting, various cold weapons hung on the opposite wall, dummies of various sizes stood further. There were also dummies with weapons. Some of them stood motionless, while others moved, hitting the void.

  "As I understand, we will train the sword techniques." The man said and went to the wall hung with weapons.

  "What?" Alex asked, because he was distracted. "What's your name?"

  “Call me Coach,” he chose a straight sword and returned to Alex.

  “Yes, I want to train with sword,” Alex nodded. "But I don't know what to do first."

  “Well, try to attack me for a minute, and then I will give some recommendations on the upcoming workout,” the Coach suggested and called Alex with a sword.

  "And what if I kill or injure you?" Alex asked uncertainly. "Who will train me then?”

  "If I die, I will appear in the house again, go into the training room and we will continue,” the Coach reassured him. "So beat me as hard as you can."

  “Okay,” Alex nodded, took his sword and started attacking with all his might. He gave two chops, but the Coach beat them off easily. After that Alex realized that he should begin to attack harder, using all possible tricks. The Coach beat some the blows off and dodged another.

  "Stop!" The Coach commanded finally. "I offer to start with basic training."

  “I know a lot of tricks,” Alex muttered offensively. "Everything is also okay with the technique of performance. Why should I train initial tricks?"

  “You don't see the distance,” the Coach explained. "Knowledge and technique gives nothing if you don't see whether you can reach the enemy or not. What is more, you think too a lot about your next actions. It is necessary to train at least some connecting moves. For example, "parry plus attack" or "dodge plus cut". To begin with, we will choose blows, which are familiar to you, and train them.

  “But why should I train only blows that I already know,” Alex said. "I thought you would teach me some new tricks or techniques."

  “They won't help you unless you see the distance,” the Coach shook his head. "During the battle you won't have time to think a lot. You should react immediately."

  “Okay, you are right about the distance,” Alex answered. "But it's stupid to train only few hits. I will be too predictable."

  “Firstly, even if the opponent knows what kind of blow you want to use, this doesn't mean that he will be able to beat off successfully,” the Coach calmly continued explaining. Alex didn't irritate him at all. "Secondly, if you perfectly perform even just two blows, this will be enough to defeat the enemy. And the defeated enemy is a dead enemy, who won't tell anyone that you know only one technique."

  “Well, do as you want,” Alex finally agreed.

  “An excellent choice! Follow me,” the trainer went to the dummies. He stopped in front of carved from wood "warrior". Then he took some steps back, took out a piece of chalk and
drew a white strip on the floor. "Stand here and hit the dummy, don't go beyond the line."

  “Got it,” Alex nodded. He waved his sword a couple of times, then stretched out in a deep lunge, but he didn't manage to reach the dummy. “I cannot reach him,” Alex said.

  "This is the essence of the lesson," the Coach nodded. "You should learn the minimum distance, having occupied which, you reach the enemy, and the enemy don't reach you. We will go on to the next exercise in half an hour."

  “Do I have to wave my sword in front of the dummy for half an hour in order to learn the distance?” Alex asked confusedly.

  “If you want to learn how to use a sword, then yes,” the Coach nodded. "The rules of this house are simple: "Do what I say or leave.""

  “Okay, okay,” Alex said and began striking in front of him, occasionally glancing at the dummy or at the line under his feet. After half an hour his the Coach nodded, walked up to Alex and drew another line, closer to the dummy. Alex reaches him when he made a deep lunge forward this time. After another half an hour The Coach drew a new line and Alex could easily reach the dummy with any blow. Being convinced that Alex had learned all the lessons, the Coach led him to a new dummy. This one looked more like a warrior, his body was covered with chain mail, and he held a small wooden sword in his hands.

  "Should I hit again?" Alex asked and looked curiously at the dummy. "By the way, will you draw a line?"

  “No, this time there will be no line,” the Coach shook his head. “Now your task is not only to strike, but also to dodge or parry them,” dummy waved his sword and tried to attack lazily.

  "Wow!" Although Alex was surprised, he managed to beat off. “It seems to be easy,” he shouted to the Coach and hit the dummy on the head.

  “Don’t jump to conclusions and continue training,” the Coach said, looking at Alex attentively.

  In a minute dummy started to speed up, his attacks became quicker. Then Alex didn’t think about attacks, he was just trying to parry or dodge blows. After a couple of minutes dummy reached Alex, hit him in the hand and stomach. Alex wanted to stop the battle, but then realized that dummy’s attacks were quite monotonous. He lunged twice, took step back, then lunged again and hit twice, blocked, and made the same again. Alex got used to it and started to attack successfully, he hit the dummy in a head some times.

  “Stop!” The Coach said loudly and the dummy stopped. “I see you study quickly and that’s good.”

  “To be honest, I’m tired now.” Alex said gasping. “We’ve been training for 3 hours already. Can we have a break?”

  “No problems.” The Coach nodded. “Follow me,” he waved his hand and Alex went tiredly. We walked to the badly lighted part of the hall. There was a small table and a long bench. The Coach took a bottle of green liquid under the table, opened it and gave to Alex. “Drink.”

  “It tastes like a grass,” Alex drank it quickly. “What’s next?” Alex yawned and realized that he wanted to sleep.

  “Lye on the bench and sleep.” The Coach commanded. “I will wake you up in an hour and we will continue.”

  “What?” Alex understood that the Coach was waking him up.

  “It’s been an hour.” He said impatiently. “Stand up and follow me.”

  “Okay, okay!” Alex waved away. He sat on the bench and realized that the fatigue had gone away. He was full of power. “I’m ready.” Alex stood up and took a sword.

  “Firstly, you should do the exercise with moving dummy again.” The Coach suggested. “And then we will go on to another exercise.”

  The Coach led Alex to the moving golem. This time Alex didn’t miss any blow and his attacks were successful.

  “I see you’ve leant the lesson.” The Coach stopped the dummy and called Alex. “Now you should fight with a real opponent.”

  “Who is he?” Alex looked around and didn’t see anybody.

  “It’s me.” The Coach smiled. He came to the wall with the weapons and chose a sword of the same size as Alex’s sword. “We will continue to train the distance. Choose some strikes and use only them. Focus on the distance.”

  “Okay, I’ve understood.” Alex said dismissively. “You know how I beat the dummy.”

  “Oh, you’ve understood…” The coach mumbled. “Now we will see,” he started attacking immediately.

  “It’s unfair.” Alex didn’t expect and the sword rested on his chest.

  “You should be always ready to fight if you want to be alive.” The Coach smiled. “Not all of your enemies will fight fairly.” And he attacked one more time. This time Alex hardly parried the blow. “Now it’s better. Let’s continue!” The Coach hit again.

  Alex left the room in 3 hours. Trix was waiting for him in the corridor.

  “Do you like your workout?” She asked immediately.

  “Now I’m at Level Six.” Alex waved away and opened the door. He was exhausted. “Let’s go and find our team.”

  “I’ve also upgraded the level.” Trix boasted. “And I’ve learnt how to shot at moving targets. What have you learnt?”

  "Basically I was upgrading old tricks. I got the higher level and I was offered to choose a type of warrior I will be - a protective warrior with a shield and a short sword, or an attacking warrior with a half or two-handed sword. I chose the second," Alex explained. "I will come back tomorrow to learn more, there are a couple of tricks that I need to train."

  "I'm already at the Level Six!" Rina shouted, when she saw them coming. "I've learnt a lightning shield and..."

  “Not today, please,” Alex said tiredly. "Turk, lead us back."

  When everyone returned to the public house, Alex ordered dinner, counted the coins and realized that he had enough to rent two rooms, order breakfast and attend the Coach's house once.

  "Turk, stay downstairs," Alex decided. "Girls, I will rent a room with two beds, so you can rest after today's workout and see how the tenants live."

  Alex bought breakfast for everyone and went to the Coach with Turk on the next day. He spent the last money and continued training. During the first hour he was doing the same exercises as yesterday. Then the coach suggested working on bundles of punches and blocks.

  “You chose the attacking style yesterday,” the Coach recalled.

  I would recommend to work out "dodge-strike" scheme," he suggested. "Of course, you also need to be able to parry the blows, so we will practice it. But we will focus on attacking techniques."

  "I'm for it," after the first lesson Alex realized that he knew nothing about fencing, so he trusted the Coach completely.

  "Then firstly, let's go to the moving dummies and work out the basic techniques." The Coach decided. "Then we will rest a little and have a sparring."

  “I thought I’d get a level and I’ll know everything right away,” Alex muttered.

  “You already know everything,” Coach grinned. “But there is a huge difference between knowing the blows and being able to use them."

  “I've already understood that,” Alex sighed sadly.

  “Then go ahead,” the Coach said cheerfully. "I think you will be a good warrior by the end of the day."

  "I hope," Alex said and went to the Coach. The day is going to be difficult.

  Chapter 10

  In the evening, Alex left the Coach and came back to the public house with Turk.

  "Do you like the training?" Trix asked.

  “I'm tired and hungry,” Alex answered. "We will buy dinner and rent a room again. I should have a rest."

  “You said you had no money,” Trix said. “Are we going to pass the quest?” She suggested happily.

  “There are no more suitable missions for us here,” Alex said. "We are already at high levels, so we should go to Grink."

  "We will spend the night outside?" Rina offered.

  "No!" Alex quickly shook his head, he was thinking about his last night in the forest. “I have one healing pot left,” Alex pulled out a bottle of red liquid and gave it to the barman. “I’ll sell it,
and the money we will get is just enough to buy food and rent some rooms for one night. Turk, you will spend the night in this hall again."

  Alex gathered everyone in the hall and ordered breakfast on the next day. He also bought bread, cheese, dried meat and jars filled with fresh milk.

  “Lead us, Turk,” Alex was cheerful, full of strength and determination after the good sleep. “We’ll get to Grink, and then we will decide what to do." Alex didn’t come up with a plan yet, but he was in a great mood, and his trainings gave him confidence.

  "Go there," Turk pointed at the road, which lead to North.

  "We won't hurry," Alex thought a little. "Turk, you go first and don't hurry. I think we are the only group..."

  "Why the only one?" Turk asked.

  “Well, we counted the number of assistants in the public house,” Alex explained.

  "There are other public houses," Turk grinned. "One in Grink, the other in the capital."

  “So there may be more tenants,” Trix suggested happily. "We could find them, and then, united, carry out some difficult tasks."

  “These tenants are more likely to kill us,” Alex suggested. "They may be hiding somewhere in an ambush on the road and waiting for new players."

  "What should we do then?" Turk stopped bewildered.

  “We need to go to Grink anyway,” Alex said. "And there we will carry out quests. We don't have money. Let's go near the road."

  “Great idea,” Turk took his sword and broke into the roadside bushes. "Follow me, I'll clear the way..."