The one we summoned to become our Champion was, initially, extremely wary of us. I doubt anyone could blame him for that. After all, we were the ones who’d taken him from his world and brought him to our own against his will. However, with time he came to trust us. At first, it was merely a few he opened up to. I was honored to be one of the first. I had done my best to be worthy of that trust.

  -Excerpt from “The Chief Guide’s Ruminations”

  Two days after his first trip into Ignis, in a courtyard located within the castle, Galen Daxton sparred against his tutor, Aleksi, in hand-to-hand combat.

  Galen ducked and weaved in between Aleksi’s fast and heavy punches. He was thankful his tutor wasn’t using Ether. He was already having a hell of a time dodging the strikes coming his way. If his mentor decided to use the power…

  Happy thoughts, Galen. Happy thoughts...

  After a moment or two, he found an opening in Aleksi’s defenses. He threw a mean right hook right into his tutor’s ribs.

  The man grunted, and quickly countered with one of his own.

  Galen ducked under the attack, and responded with is own left punch that landed on Aleksi’s stomach. The man grunted again, but shrugged off the blow and jumped back. Galen took the opportunity to catch his breath. It had taken a lot out of him to dodge the man’s strikes.

  Aleksi relaxed his stance and smiled. He motioned towards a nearby bench. Galen took that to mean that they were to take a break, and followed his tutor in resting.

  Aleksi rubbed his facial hair with a smile, “Not bad, lad. I’m impressed. This clearly isn’t your first fight.”

  “What? Were you expecting me to be completely green?” Galen asked with a grin.

  “Something like that. The records say the First Champion was rather inexperienced in combat. And by that, I meant that he had none whatsoever,” Aleksi rubbed his chin thoughtfully, “the legend himself also chronicled how the world he’d come from was extremely peaceful in comparison to this one.”

  Galen nodded in confirmation, “Yeah, Earth had the occasional skirmish here and there. But on the whole? It was pretty peaceful. It was said by historical experts that the time I lived in was the most peaceful era in human history.”

  “Then its all the more impressive you know how to hold your own,” Aleksi noted, “it also peaks the curiosity. If your world was so peaceful, then why learn how to fight?”

  “Most of it was because of my grandfather. He’d been a soldier who retired from the military. He saw fit to teach me the skills he knew, especially when his son, my dad, refused to learn.”

  “And you didn’t?” Aleksi inquired, “why’s that?”

  Galen flushed and pressed his lips into a thin line.

  Aleksi raised a brow and chuckled at his reaction, “Why are you blushing, lad? The reason can’t be that embarrassing. Unless…”

  Aleksi gave him a teasing grin, “Don’t tell me. Was it to impress a young lass you fancied?”

  Galen flushed deeper, briefly recalling the portrait of the young woman from his recurring dream. He pushed the thought aside as he sputtered, “What?! No! That’s not why!”

  The man clearly didn’t believe him, and his tone indicated as much, “Sure.”

  He disliked the misunderstanding, but he figured it was less embarrassing than the actual reason.

  The real reason, at least, why he’d started, had been because Galen had a deep admiration of heroes. It was part of the reason why he was such a nerd who loved watching anime, and reading manga, comics, and novels. He had a deep fondness of stories where good triumphed and evil was defeated.

  The inverse was also true. He absolutely hated stories with tragic endings, or where evil got off consequence free.

  Now, he had no delusions about being able to be a fraction as good or heroic as the characters he admired in fiction. But those stories nonetheless uplifted him, and reminded him that goodness did exist in the world regardless of how hard that was to believe at times.

  It was for that reason, a desire to be a little more like the characters he admired, to be a stronger and more heroic version of himself, that he had taken so much to his grandfather’s training. His desire, while not waning, matured with time. From that of a naive child with heroic aspirations to one who sought self improvement. The skills his grandfather had cultivated in him had definitely come in handy when he had to beat down the occasional bully.

  He briefly recalled a time when he defended Serenity from some older kids bullying her. A single beat down had more than convinced them to leave both him and his sister alone. It was one of the few times that the scolding he’d received from his parents after the fact had been worth it.

  Galen smiled as he recalled, Heck, when I told Serenity the reason I liked training with grandpa, she refused to stop teasing me about it. No doubt she’d spill the beans to Aleksi just to aggravate me if she were here-

  His smile died.

  He quickly shook his head, reminding himself, Stay busy… Stay busy!

  Aleksi noticed Galen’s odd behavior, “You alright, lad?”

  He abruptly stood up, “Who? Me? I’m fine. Just fine! Yep! Totally fine. I think we’ve rested enough. Let’s get back to training! What’s next?”

  Aleksi frowned, obviously not believing him. Thankfully, his tutor didn’t press as he reached under the bench and pulled out two sturdy, wooden swords.

  Now it was Galen’s turn to frown as he thought, How long have those been under there?

  His tutor tossed him one of the wooden swords. He caught it and inspected it. It was modeled after a standard broadsword, and was clearly designed for practice.

  If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  “I’ve seen what you can do without a weapon. And I’m impressed. Now, however,” Aleksi twirled his own wooden weapon around some, “we see what you can do WITH a weapon. I believe swords are your preference, yes?”

  Galen nodded to confirm, “So that was why you asked me what my preferred weapon was the other day!”

  “Guilty as charged,” Aleksi chuckled, “also, I remember you VEHEMENTLY stating that bows were out of the question. In fact, you pointed that out so vigorously that it peaks the curiosity.”

  Galen flushed deeply at the reminder.

  The story behind his refusal to use bows was absolutely embarrassing, so he hissed at his tutor, “Drop it.”

  Thankfully, Aleksi did. He chuckled as he stood with his weapon, “Very well. Let’s get back to sparring. Now, let’s see if you can impress me a second time, lad.”

  Unlike when they sparred hand-to-hand, the man gave no warning or indication to start. He simply lunged at him a with thrust of his sword.

  Galen had been caught surprised, but unfortunately for his tutor, his grandfather had often done the same sort of thing. Having constantly dealt with surprise attacks from Nolan Daxton, his reflexes had been honed enough to allow him to parry Aleksi’s thrust.

  Surprise briefly registered in the man’s eyes. Galen moved to take advantage by trying to strike his face with the pommel of his wooden sword, but he reacted in time to dodge the strike. Aleksi backed away a bit, leaving some space between the two.

  They circled one another cautiously, waiting for the slightest opening to strike.

  Galen smirked, “So? Did I impress you again?”

  “You surprised me, I admit,” Aleksi corrected with a grin, “but impressed? Not yet, lad. Not yet… Maybe I will be after-”

  Aleksi cut himself off as he suddenly stepped in close to Galen with alarming speed. He was put on the back foot as his mentor moved even faster than he had in their earlier sparring session.

  He was holding out on me! Galen realized as he deflected Aleksi’s strikes.

  His hands stung and his arms were growing tired trying to block the flurry of attacks. He saw an opening when Aleksi overextended, and pounced.

  He swung his sword at Aleksi’s exposed side, confident he had him.

  Only for Aleksi to drop to the floor, avoiding the swing, and kicking Galen’s legs out from under him. He tumbled to the ground, and Aleksi stabbed at him with his sword. He barely brought his own sword up in time to deflect the strike.

  Both Galen and Aleksi rolled from each other and bounced back to their feet. They began to circle one another again.

  “You moved faster than you did before,” Galen noted with a frown, “you were holding back earlier!”

  Aleksi chuckled, “Of course! Today is meant to be a test, not a lesson in humility. Though, if you want, I can give you that.”

  Galen narrowed his eyes at the challenge. He took a stance, holding his sword with both hands, the wooden blade pointed straight up in the air.

  “Try it,” he challenged, all jovial humor gone from his expression.

  Aleksi raised a brow, as if to say, “Well, you asked for it.”

  The man charged, but this time, Galen was ready.

  Rather than being on the back foot, he evenly exchanged blows and parries with his mentor. The sound of wood clashing against wood reverberated throughout the courtyard. For a moment, Galen excitedly thought he might be evenly matched with Aleksi.

  That was, until his mentor sent Galen sliding back with a kick, “Alright, I think that’s enough warming up. Don’t you think, lad?”

  What followed next was what could only be called a one-sided beat down that left him on the floor, covered in welts and bruises.

  “Ow….” Galen hissed on the ground, completely winded.

  His wooden sword had been left several feet away from him after Aleksi had disarmed him and sent him to the ground with a kick to the stomach.

  While he lay on the ground, Aleksi, for his part, seemed to be sparkling as he wiped off the sweat from his brow.

  “Now that was a decent workout,” the man said as he looked up at the swirling, red and orange sky.

  Part of him thought the man was purposely rubbing salt on his wounds.

  Aleksi turned to him, pretending to notice him lying on his back, “Are you still on the ground? Come now, I didn’t kick you THAT hard, lad.”

  “Oh… sure you didn’t…” Galen said sarcastically between hisses of pain.

  Aleksi offered his hand. The man easily pulled him to his feet.

  Galen sighed, “So? How’d I do?”

  “I’m impressed.”

  “No, really,” Galen insisted, convinced his mentor was still messing with him.

  “I’m being serious,” Aleksi said sincerely, without any teasing or humor to be found in his expression.

  Galen frowned, “But I got my ass handed to me on a silver platter!”

  Now Aleksi laughed, “That you did. To be fair, you did ask for it, lad.”

  “So how was that impressive? Did I do so badly that it was noteworthy in a bad way?”

  Aleksi shook his head, “No. If that were the case I would just tell you outright. You did impress me, lad. Not only do you know your way in a fist fight, you also have some skill with a sword! Again, considering what the records said about the First Champion, I started today thinking that you’d have absolutely ZERO experience in combat. Instead, I’m coming away pleasantly surprised to know that we won’t have to train you from the ground up.”

  “Alright, then…”

  “You still seem upset, lad. What’s the matter?”

  Galen flushed as he muttered, “Well… I… don’t like to lose….”

  Aleksi laughed, “Who does, lad? I can sympathize. As I told you before, I can be rather competitive.”

  Galen gave him a moment to stop laughing before asking, “Based on this sparring session, how’s my swordsmanship? How does it compare to others, and how can I improve?”

  Aleksi raised his brows, “I knew from your studies that you were eager to learn. I’m glad to know that enthusiasm for improvement extends to other areas.”

  He cleared his throat, “Well, lad. Here’s my assessment. You aren’t green. At least, not in terms of skill. But you lack actual combat experience. With the sword, I mean. I’ve noticed you’re rather stiff in your moves as well.”

  Galen nodded slowly. It made sense. His grandfather had learned how to use a sword in order to teach him, but he hadn’t exactly been a master. Earth had been a world where firearms were extremely common. Things like swords and other such weapons had long since been rendered obsolete. It was for that reason why he had found it so baffling that his grandfather had refused to teach him how to use firearms, and had insisted he learn how to use more primitive weaponry.

  With Earth being the peaceful world that it was, Galen could only gain experience through things like fencing and other official tournaments where the combat was heavily regulated and controlled. Though Galen had been rather good in those tournaments, even winning a few and getting into the top three others…. This left him without much experience using those weapons in a real fight.

  It was a weakness that would soon have to be rectified, being in the world he was in right now.

  And Aleksi said as much as he reassured him, “It’s nothing that can’t be fixed with lots of practice, lad. I’m rather decent with a sword, if I do say so myself. I guarantee that soon, this won’t even be a problem for you.”

  Aleksi looked up to the sky, “And with that said, I’ve got a good idea of what you’re capable of right now, lad. That means we can move to the next step tomorrow.”

  “And that is?”

  Aleksi looked him dead in the eye, “It’s time to teach you about Ether.”