Shattered Legacies: Book 1, Holo Change

💠Chapter 22: Training pains💠

Words failed to describe just how relieved, elated and excited Anna was that morning. Waking up and realizing she'd never again have to be thrown into a fight, overwhelmed and expected to know everything by a person who scared her to death. Her days of dread and holding back tears were over, and the note she found that morning with her schedule proved it. Lucien came and found her in the dinning area not long after breakfast, a face all too welcomed no matter what the others might have thought. They made their way through the Chateau, making chit chat along the way. Him asking her what she knew, and her admitting that she basically didn't know anything besides blocking and running away. He wasn't surprised.

He lead her through the building, going through many corridors and stairways, down through a tower and into the basement area where a large portion of the training grounds in the Chateau were. To her surprise. She thought they were going to one in town, like Ms Rosa had taken them to. But then again, it did make more sense to do it within the base's walls to avoid the Soulful over hearing. It seemed... pretty important for the Order to stay as far from those who hadn't been reborn as possible.

"Ok." With a quick breath to prepare himself for the lesson, having not taught in a very long time, he flicked on the lights to the large stainless steel chamber. The florescent strips flashing at first in an annoying way that bothered her eyes. Making her squint for a moment as the automatic doors shut behind them with a mechanical sliding sound. "Before we go out in the field, we need to get you used to controlled settings." Lucien spoke with simple knowledge walking into the training room, the girl in toe, taking in the area. This one was different from the one they usually practiced in. It had the same bolt like pieces on the floor and walls that held light from the ceiling, but it was bigger, and on top of that it had different stages set up within it. Platforms like in the one in town, along with training dummies that looked like white sack dolls on metal poles. Racks of practice weapons, including guns and bows, and of course, a panel on the wall for scenario set up. "So today we're gonna use the training ground to practice your sparring combat." He stopped in front of the panel.

"Ok!" She smiled in turn, "But um, why are we in the more advanced training room?" then wondered out loud. It seemed more advanced anyway. Making her assume it was for the upper members only, since this was her first time seeing inside. And she wasn't fully wrong. "It's got more to work with." He explained before turning to the panel and pressing a button, making the dummies slide closer on their set path. It made more sense to just use this one, the one with many different levels beyond normal sparing one on one because they could get more lessons done. There was verity. And even with her inevitable role, she would need to know how to fight. Especially defend herself. Anna hummed with a tight mouth, a little bit worried. "Won't you get in trouble for having me in here?.." Remembering how Mr Elijah had screamed at her classmate for snooping around, a knot formed in her gut and twisted. The last thing she wanted was to deal with him like that.

But to this the man scuffed, almost sarcastically amused with the idea of the crochety fanged man trying to get him for this. "I can handle Elijah." He stated with a hint of bitterness. It wouldn't have been the first time he picked a fight on the off chance anything was said at all about him doing his job in the most efficient way.

He turned back around and with a more confident air about him he began. "Alright, everything starts with your stance." Immediately causing the girl to tilt her head at his words, "My stance?" again looking like a confused puppy. He nodded once, crossing his arms in front of him. "Your very first move before you rush into battle. It's the part where you sturdy yourself for an attack." He explained. Essentially, it was the pose one took when a battle began. Yes, that was a thing, with a reason, it wasn't just an animation for a character model in games. "Stances change from weapon to weapon based on their size and your own abilities." Words that should have been obvious when thinking about it honestly. As everyone was different in many many ways. Making every stance as unique as the person even if they had certain common things about them thanks to weaponry.