Emperors War

There was no formal taking or accepting of a master and disciple and neither would want that any way. Both have their back against the wall and even if they were successful they may get nothing from it whereas failure would certainly result in death. Every day would be a tight rope act of surviving, so who cares about any formalities.

Vance slowly walked around the boy taking in his features such as height, strength, arm length and other details from his earlier fight. He needed to train Aker and the training needed to start immediately. Aker would be fighting tomorrow in The Pit and certainly based on today"s fight tomorrows fight would feature a battle that was far more dangerous.

Vance was debating in his mind about how much information he should share with Aker at this point, he didn"t know if he should explain that the reason he was taken was that he was an Emperors Candidate and the reason he was fighting in The Pit was that he was failed.

Ultimately, he decided that even if Aker asked, he wouldn"t tell him yet. He didn"t want him getting distracted and wanted him to focus on his training. In the future he would explain everything to him. Knowing would offer him no benefit and could bring significant harm and not knowing would not harm him at all.

After walking around Aker three times Vance pulled out a short sword and a knife and dropped both of them on the ground in front of Aker. As the knife and short sword hit the ground, they made a clank...clank sound as they bounced up down on the hard floor.

"Pick them up." Vance called out without emotion. It was impossible to see the man who had just given the heart stirring speech just seconds ago.

Aker reached down and picked up the knife and short sword. They felt slightly heavy in his and as they were made of a black metal, they were extremely cold to the touch.

"After watching your fight earlier, I have decided these are the best weapons to begin training you with. Your speed and strength are both exceptional for your age so we will take advantage of both of them. Let"s start with the knife, I always figure the best way to learn is by doing so show me what you got, come on attack."

Aker stood there holding the weapons in his hands. He stared at Vance as if though trying to figure out his strength and weaknesses. He turned and slowly walked over to the corner of the cell where he set down the short sword. Immediately following the short sword hitting the ground Aker turned and attacked Vance.

Vance was slightly caught off guard and extremely impressed. He had used the motion of walking over to the corner and setting down the short sword to take control of the situation. He purposely made use of the short sword hitting the ground as a distraction tactic and attacked in that moment.

Like a flash Aker covered the couple of meters from the one side of the cell to the other while extending the knife out in a straight line. The knife point was aiming for Vance"s waist line and was only 8-10 centimeter away from being able to draw blood.

Just as Aker was beginning to feel smug and confident with his plan a smile appeared on the cold and emotionless face of Vance. In one small motion Vance stepped slightly to the side while swinging his arm down.

The knife simply slipped past the spot that Vance had been standing at and the arm came down right on Akers back. With a thud Aker who was moving at the fastest speed he could muster in an enclosed area hit the ground making a loud thump sound.

Aker"s battle with Vance didn"t even last a single move. As Aker struggled to stand up, he felt ashamed and depressed.

"Hahahaha...Are you depressed losing to me?" Vance couldn"t help but notice Akers reaction to his planning and strike being foiled.

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Before Aker had an opportunity to talk Vance continued on.

"You planned perfectly and if you want to survive in The Pits you"ll have to continue to plan and scheme. Fights aren"t just a battle of speed, reflexes and strength. Most battles are won and lost in the planning, scheming, and att.i.tude. Heaven always provides a path to victory even if the chances are slim and depressing, only by staying calm and a.n.a.lyzing can we find the path to victory. Your speed is excellent and you went for a weak blind spot which was fantastic…...and it was all ruined because you over extended yourself...."

Vance"s cold demeanor disappeared as he was patiently explaining to Aker with a soft and gentle voice. Aker was listening as if though every word could save his life.

"The knife, no, every weapon should become an extension of yourself. A weapon is a tool and without a master it does nothing, however in the hands of a master it becomes alive. In the hands of a master it is no longer a tool, it develops a spirit and resonates with the master."

Aker shook his head back and forth as he looked at Vance and simply spit out "I think I understand some of what you"re saying but I don"t understand how a weapon can become alive or have a spirit."

Vance smiled down at Aker and thought to himself what kind of monster would you be if you understood that concept just from a quick explanation.

"It takes a normal fighter dozens of years to become a master and develop the life and spirit of a weapon. Even then its unheard of for someone to do it in more than one type of weapon. Most fighters commit themselves to a single weapon and then master it until it becomes a part of them."

Aker nodded his head up and down as if understanding what Vance was trying to convey.

Vance continued on "You will use all different kinds of weapons as we learn what type of weapon you prefer to use. Every time you enter The Pit, we will have you fight with some other type of weapon until we find one that you can build on."

This was part of Vance"s plan. The Pit presented the perfect training environment for Aker. He could train himself in real life and death fights while accelerating his learning process for weapons, tactics and understanding. It would take most fighters years to find the weapon that resonated with them. Most fighters could spend their whole life developing tactics and mentalities that Aker could develop in only months.

Unfortunately, the reciprocal of that is true as well. As Aker would be fighting in life and death fights any day could be his last day and any mistake could result in death. However, the old adage remains true that with extreme risk comes extreme reward. If Aker can survive The Pits what could he become? For the first time in longer than Vance could remember he felt a tinge of excitement and antic.i.p.ation.

"Tomorrow you will fight with the knife. You will have two knives and as such you need to practice attacking and defending with both of them. Remember the knife does not have the penetrating length of a sword or spear so it requires precession that exceeds a sword or spear. You can wound with knife anywhere on the body but typically a knife"s finishing move is here and here." Vance showed Aker on his body where to aim.

"Can you inflict a finishing move to other body parts?" Aker asked seriously

"Yes of course you can but the level of difficulty goes up and the effectiveness goes down. Attacking the abdomen will weaken your opponent and benefit you throughout the entire battle but it will not stop your opponent."

Vance explained as he demonstrated a move of stabbing forward to the lower abdomen and then bouncing back to get out of range of the counter attack.

"The knife is small and sharp with a fine point which makes it easy to slice and stab. As such the knife has an emphasis on speed and agility. The knife can parry an attack but it"s difficult and requires practice. When using a knife as your main weapon your intention should always be moving, whether attacking or defending."

Vance continued to demonstrate his slicing and stabbing motions as he moved in all directions. He would slide his feet to the left as his right arm slid out holding the knife with a reverse grip so that the blade would slide across his enemies as he moved. His movements resembled a dance as he glided from location to location.

"The knife requires faints and misdirection to truly be effective. You need to move back and forth from a reverse grip to a forward grip seamlessly. In this way your opponent won"t be able to antic.i.p.ate how much distance they need to account for."

Vance showed Aker the difference between a reverse grip and forward grip explaining that a reverse grip consisted of holding the knife pointing down toward the ground while a forward grip was generally holding the knife with your fingers wrapped all the way around the grip with the blade facing out and away from your body either toward the sky or towards your opponent. From either the forward grip or the reverse grip there were still many different nuances in regards to how to hold such as the elephant grip or the hammer grip but the important aspect was being able to transition quickly from the basic forward and reverse grips.

Once a person mastered moving quickly between the two grips it would be nearly impossible for an opponent to fight a knife fighter in close combat. Most experts fighting in close combat fought in terms of millimeters while the knife blade extended or retracted in the distance of centimeters depending on which grip. Keeping your opponent guessing and over compensating was just the basics of fighting.

Aker watched as Vance demonstrated the forward grip attacks and defensive moves as well as the reverse grip attacks and defensive moves. He watched as Vance moved his feet and the blade in unison creating a holistic body movement that would be difficult for any animal or human to counter.

Vance demonstrated knife movements for roughly 30 minutes before dropping the knifes on the ground in front of Aker.

"You will be fighting in The Pit tomorrow. My guess would be they will have you fight something more than the Kulga based on how you handled yourself today. Remember this, beast are easy no matter how strong they are. They are not capable of tactics and planning and you are. Further they are not capable of recognizing your tactics as well so you don"t need to worry that they will catch onto it between battles. Each beast is slightly different so not a single tactic will work for all beast."

Aker nodded his head in understanding. What Vance was telling him made perfect sense. While he may not be as strong, fast or have as much endurance as his enemy his mind was his greatest strength. He was beginning to understand Vance"s message that no matter how desperate the situation if he could keep calm and use his mind, he had the opportunity to pull through it.

"Alright, finish eating and get some rest. After resting practice the moves I showed you. The more you practice and the better you get the better chance you have to survive each and every day. Once you learn something it can"t be taken away from you and you become just a little bit stronger. Every little bit of strength increases your chances of survival and our chances of revenge."

Vance paused as if contemplating his thoughts. He looked up at the ceiling as if though he was trying to order his next words. Due to the pause and the look on Vance"s face Aker couldn"t help but become just a little more attentive. If Vance stopped to put this extra bit of thought into what was coming next then it must be just a little more important.

After several breaths of thought Vance pulled his gaze away from the ceiling and stared Aker straight in the eye and began to speak slowly with emphasis on each word.

"Knowledge is strength. Every bit of knowledge that you gain makes you slightly stronger. A strong warrior is capable of fighting and surviving. An invincible warrior is the one who understands the world around them, plans, and executes. With more knowledge comes the ability to have more understanding. With more understanding comes the ability to have more planning. With more planning comes the ability to have more executions. There is no such thing as bad knowledge, learn everything you can and perhaps being able to apply it will allow for victory or save your life someday."

With that Vance turned around, shut the cell door and walked away leaving the two knifes with Aker.

Aker watched as Vance walked out leaving him standing there in the cold cell by himself. Aker looked around and besides the cold stone and metal bars some food, knifes and blood colored stone was on the floor.

Aker reached down and grabbed the food that Vance brought and sat on the blood-stained floor. He preferred to sit in this spot as it wasn"t as cold due to the beast blood insulating the stone floor. As Aker had discovered, once the beast blood dries it becomes impossibly hard. After sitting in the spot covered in beast blood for a couple of days it was a couple of layers thick. While the spot wasn"t overly large it was big enough that Aker could sleep on it. Considering in the cell there was nothing to sleep on and nothing to keep him warm this spot would naturally be his resting spot.

After eating down the Kulga Aker felt a lot more energized than he did when he first walked into the cell. He was still tired but thinking back on what Vance had said earlier he realized that there was no time to rest. Every single day would be a fight and struggle. His only chance to survive the next day was to get a little stronger because each day they would be trying to bury him in front of a crowd that cheered for his demise. Every day when his eyes opened, he would have to face monsters while wearing a brave face.

Had Aker stopped to think about it he would probably be extremely confused with himself. Why wasn"t he more afraid? How was he able to cope with such a scary world? How could he be filled with determination to such a degree? What"s changed since his first few hours in this strange world until now?

What normal 8-year-old boy could be and do the things that Aker has already done in the last few days? What normal 8-year-old boy could adjust his mentality and thought process so quickly?

Then at some point Aker would realize that he is not a normal 8-year-old boy. Why would the King of the Underground waste his time personally seeing to the kidnapping and testing of a normal 8-year-old child?

After finishing his food Aker closed his eyes and pictured the moves that Vance had made. He recalled the smooth moves of the knives as they moved seamlessly from the forward and reverse positions. As he aimed at vital points and used subtle movements for faints to confuse his opponent. He remembered as Vance spoke about speed and agility when using the knife.

Aker slowly stood up and moved towards the knifes laying on the ground. Picking them up and putting them in his hands he swung them around randomly a couple of times as he tried to get a feel for their weight, the speed he could exert and his ability to control them.

After swinging them a couple of times, he nodded his head in satisfaction as if though to express that this is where he should be. He took his stance mimicking the stance and posture that Vance had used.

If anyone was around, they would have been able to hear a slight whisper from Aker as he began to move his knifes around following almost exactly the same movement and sequence displayed by Vance "I"ll get more than just a little bit stronger."