While Yunan was resting he looked at the silly bunch with fascination, he just failed to envision how can adults be so childish and silly, and still be reliable enough to reach the 20th floor in the dungeon, a known roadblock to all adventurers who were subpar in the slightest. those who could reach the 20th floor and beyond were all excellent at a minimum of three roles, as in they had enough stats in three attributes and were able to maximise that advantage. that was what made the difference between elites and regular adventurers.according to the conversation Yunan heard, Balin had won a bet between the party members on how many sword swings Yunan could make before stopping, and from what Balin did next, Yunan mostly figured out the odd stakes of the bet, a full power flick to the forehead of the orc sending him flying half way across the hall, fondling the fluffy ears of the half-beast who seemed to feel very uncomfortable and about to tear up and finally left a bite mark on the elf"s shoulder. why would anyone make such stakes for a silly bet. a line Yunan read long ago surfaced in yunan"s mind and he mumbled "a Debauchery party" and the hall turned deadly silent.
The first to comment was master dwarf Balin "you got a good naming sense lad, i like it", next was a nod from Lucian "very suitable indeed", "what"s a debauchery?" is what was asked by Dustan the orc, "it has a nice ring to it" said Fae while applying a balm on the teeth marks she just got. Bai said "it does suits us, right lLeader?", Leader just nodded in contemplation, on the other hand the orc was now pestering the dwarf for an explanation, while poking him now and then to get his attention, seeing the dwarf stay silent he moved to the next target on the bullying list Fae, who answered him immediately once he asked "it means excessive indulgence, it means we just do everything without moderation, now stay away from my skin, you brute!" she had tears in her eyes by the end of it, dustan was merely holding her arm in two thick finger ready to pinch.
"Alright Debauchery party it is, resting time is up, Dustan get your axes ready, Yunan, you attack him and try to get past his block, don"t forget the singing, up you go, start moving, Dustan you count with him too, if anyone makes a mistake both of you start over". Although Dustan did take out his still blunt axes, he still complained "why me, Lucian and Bai are better at it, i did nothing wrong to get punished" that earned him a kick from Balin and snarky remark "shut up you mindless brute, you just finished bullying the cutest la.s.s ever, repent fot your sins like a man".
That started a whole new conversation about how bullying is a sign of affection for orcs, or how dwarves "can never understand the intimacy of bullying, or any other intimacy at all, the hammer swinging fanatics" according to Fae the one who almost cried a moment ago from bullying, while Yunan was attacking with all his might trying to get through the blocks of the orc, after merely 50 hits he stopped in his tracks and dropped both swords. his hands felt numb and heavy like an army of ants was crawling under his skin.
"Why do i feel like i am the one being hit instead of hitting him? everytime we connected it felt like i was the one blocking not him, how come?" the question was directed at Bai, while Leader came closer and started ma.s.saging Yunan"s arms. "that would be because you are inferior to him in terms of both strength and const.i.tution, to overcome that you need technique and experience, this was a test to see how is your const.i.tution, and how well you know your body, good thing you stopped attacking, before getting injured" as Yunan was feeling relief in his arms then the disappointment soon followed as he heard the next piece of dialogue "who won?" asked Leader while still ma.s.saging yunan"s arms, "no one" answered Bai "we all bet on him stopping after getting injured one way or another".
"What were the stakes?" leader asked " a lap pillow by Fae, a foot ma.s.sage by master Balin, a ruffeling of the tail by Lucian, and a shoulder ma.s.sage by me" answered Bai again, concisely. Leader looked at Yunan and said "you won the bet, once cla.s.s is almost over you can enjoy the benefits" after that she handed him his swords back and told Dustand to parry and dodge only. "this time when you attack try moving your feet like the dance routine we did last time, move sideways and step forward and back" this advice opened a few more paths to attack from which was an improvement from his still stance attacks, and thus provide room for wider variety of attacks, now instead of just slashing up and down, he now could stab, slash from other directions while moving.
The bout lasted for 15 minutes, Yunan failed to make Dustan block him, as was expected, next it was Dustan who approached, Yunan was told to try to dodge and block if he could, Yunan ended up with a few hits on his body, he thanked the heavens for Dustan using only his hands as axes, and not using any strength at all. from what Yunan heard the party mention, he knew that Dustan and Balin could not control their strengths and have been known to cause accidents such as bending spoon during a meal, breaking a door handle while trying to get in, the last one was more like an orc trait than an accident, thought Yunan.
After doing a recap of all the training they did in one last a spar, where yunan could this time take more than 80 hits while Dustan was blocking, using a lot of dancing as a base to lower the impact of the weapons, that was quite the happy accomplishment for Yunan as he showed obvious improvement during the same session of practice. when it was about half an hour left, Dustan and Yunan stopped their spar, and Yunan got the spoils he won from a bet he was not part of, the reward has changed a bit since the next few bets were about getting rid of the stakes lost in the bet Yunan won, it ended up as a lap pillow by Leadr, a foot ma.s.sage by Fae, and a shoulder ma.s.sage by Bai and lastly beard braiding by Balin, which yunan declined as it was not interesting, or possible to braid anything while having a pillow and a shoulder ma.s.sage at the same time. yunan was woken up by the sudden sound of the afternoon bell ending the last cla.s.s of the day, yunan didn"t even know how and when he slept, Leader advised him to skip the baths and take a nap first before cleaning up after dinner.