Winterfrost (A Hunger Games Fanfiction)

Chapter Five

The first day of training starts now.

There was one thing that I was thinking about from what Haymitch said, to specifically not practice with the knives right? Then that basically gave me a right to practice a new weapon.

"Ryalle."

I looked towards Elias, who was walking beside me for a moment. "What?"

"I know what you're trying to do," he said. "Be careful."

Wait, how did he know that I was definitely deciding on teaching myself to wield another weapon? I'll ask him tonight during our dinner if I don't forget.

In the meantime, I resolved to find a melee weapon that I can probably wield. I spotted several shelves with different melee weapons so I perused through them. If I didn't know how to throw knives, I would've settled for a dagger easily. I felt like I'm naturally agile so a sword or a spear wouldn't be a good fit for me, and how do the good people even know how to throw spears? And then the machetes are basically giant knives so they wouldn't do either.

"Whoa, how about this?"

I muttered to myself as I saw a weapon that looked like it had a steel shaft with a weighted head at the top, with four pieces of metal forming a cross. It looked very heavy to me but when I grabbed it, I was surprised that it was lighter than I expected. Even if it was still heavy, the weight is nothing that my arms can't manage. I later found out that this thing is called a mace. If used properly, it can be very deadly to whoever the wielder inflicts damage to.

I like it.

I decided to test it out on one of the mini simulations. Once I have identified myself, I had to pick between five different levels: Easy, Medium, Hard, Extreme, or Against the Odds Extreme. I felt that the last level was very extra. I went with Medium first.

I didn't want to put pressure on myself yet. If I went for Easy, that'll be very stupid, self-explanatory. If I went for Hard and beyond, I'd be testing my limits with a weapon that I wasn't proficient with yet, so I felt Medium was a better choice between all the levels.

I prepared myself for the simulation. I kept a strong grip on the mace because I knew I was also basically testing my arm strength.

Then the sim appeared. It had a sword so I have a disadvantage when it comes to agility, due to the weight in my hands, but I believe I can make up for it with brute force.

I was able to dodge each time the sim tried to slash me. Not wanting to waste any energy, I waited for an opening, so I can strike back. Strike too early and I'll just tire myself out, and strike too late, I'll get killed.

When I did find an opening, I took that chance. While the sim missed me by inches, I swung the mace to hit it at the lower part of its spine. As soon as I did, it disintegrated. For a moment, I was proud of myself yet surprised at the same time to learn the ways of a weapon like this so quickly.

"It needs some improvement," I muttered under my breath.

"Agreed."

I looked towards where the voice came from.

"Cole?" I raised an eyebrow in confusion.

"We meet again Farashnid," he smiled. "I have a few tips for you though. I use the mace sometimes, not as much as the spears but enough for me to pass down my experience. I assume you still don't trust me right?"

I firmly shook my head.

"But will you trust my advice?"

I considered that question for a second. Literally, I don't know why I started to talk to him in the first place, but maybe I can give him a chance, even if it's probably the only one that he will get from me. I guess I made my decision.