Restart Again: Volume 3 by Adam Ladner Scott

Author:Adam Ladner Scott [Ladner Scott, Adam]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-05-28T16:00:00+00:00

13. ADVENTURE

We unloaded our belongings and rolled out our sleeping mats as the sun began to dip below the horizon. Our afternoon of travel had been far more efficient than the time spent with our friends; not only were we able to move at a magic-enhanced speed, but the lack of traffic made our progress easier as well. Foot traffic had abruptly stopped when we left the buildings of Lienna behind, switching to a steady stream of wagons that passed us in both directions.

“I think we’re good to go,” I said as my mana returned to me. “We’re clear out to a couple miles in every direction, and the hills should keep any noise from traveling that far, regardless.”

Lia rolled her neck in a slow circle and stretched her arms out behind her back. “After sparring every day for a month, it’s been weird to take a few days off.” She drew her paired longswords and admired the blades in the orange pre-dusk sunlight. “You said no enhancements?”

“Right,” I nodded, drawing my sword in turn. “We’re well past the point of being able to go all-out in training matches. I’ve never healed anything more severe than a stab wound before, and I’d rather not try to reconstruct a fully shattered arm the night before we meet a bandit crew.”

“Yeah, and I’d feel bad if I hurt you that badly, too,” she smirked, twirling her swords casually at her sides.

“Oh, that’s very sweet of you,” I scoffed. I moved a few yards away to a comfortable starting position, then pointed my blade at her. “No enhancements means no magic shifting swords, either. Pick a form now and stick with it.”

“You’re no fun,” she pouted.

“Hey, if you want to rely on tricks to win all of your fights, be my guest,” I shot back. “But you know as well as I do that we’ve both fought people recently who were better fighters than we were. Do you want it to stay that way? Relying on enhancements and magic swords to keep you safe?”

“I get it, I get it,” she answered, shaking her head. “I’ve only been training for a few months, you know. I shouldn’t have to compare myself to the General until I’ve had years of practice.”

“That’s true. I trained almost every day for five years in Alderea before I had my first taste of real combat, and I still didn’t feel ready when the time came,” I said. “That’s the best part of practice, I think; no matter how long you work at it, there’s always room for improvement.”

“Is that your excuse for whenever I beat you during our sparring matches?” she laughed, dropping into a combat-ready stance.

“Why don’t you come and find out?” I taunted, waving her on. She dashed forward with a wicked laugh, and our blades sang out over the rolling hills as our fight started. Her bravado held some merit, as she had grown more consistently able to best me during our training matches in the past month, but the vast majority of her victories came from our sessions using combat enhancements.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.