The Rise of Faim

Activities

IX. Activities

The first activity Faim selected on his first day of joining the gym was archery. He watched the archers release the arrows towards their respective targets. The archery instructor gave him some helpful advice.

“Have the right posture for when you're stretching the bowstring.” Faim stood ramrod straight as he held the bow firmly, his right forearm and bicep constricted while he pulled the arrow back. “Relax your muscles, your arms need flexibility to be able to realease the arrow.” Faim did as he was told, he released the arrow but missed the target.

“Practice as many times as you can to improve your aim.” The archer made a clear demonstration by picking an arrow from the quiver, pulled the nock of the arrow stretching the wire back and aimed the point at the right angle. With a keen eye, the archer released the arrow at the right trajectory, the arrow zipped at breakneck speed and the point of the arrow hit the mark, landing two inches away from the bullseye. “With repetition, you'll be able to master archery in no time.”

Faim's eyebrows arched while his brown eyes darted at the arrow and at the archer who instructed him. “And the best part, you can test out which archery style works for you.” The archer added.

Faim fished out another arrow from the quiver slung on his back, strectched the bowstring and pulled the nock, balancing the shaft of the arrow on the arrow rest and tried to imitate his instructor's Western style archery and shot the arrow.

The archery instructor saw that Faim made some progress with his aim. At least the arrow didn't miss the target this time.

“Not bad, keep going at it.” The archer instructor encouraged before he went to check on the other particpants of the sport while Faim experimented shooting the arrow Eastern style by stretching the bowstring, laying it on the opposing side of the arrow rest and released the arrow. The point hit the target as his practice improved slightly.

The next activity Faim chose to participate was Arnis. In this sport, the instructor taught the novices the basics while he held a stick, then  challenged the participants, including Faim, to put their reflexes to the test and gave them an arnis stick.

"You'll be testing your reflexes against your opponent." The instructor flipped the stick between his wrists then pointed it at one of his best students. A young man with dark slick hair, dark skin with a mole between his left eye and left ear walked up to the instructor to give a demonstration of attack, block and defense.

The young man swung the arnis stick to whack the instructor to the head before the instructor blocked it, stepped back a couple of paces then took a defensive position as the young man charged in to strike him. The instructor got hit on the hip as an example, ending the demonstration.

“Choose your sparring partner.” Just as the instructor said those words, a spiky haired teenager with a red bandana jabbed Faim in the sacral bone.

“Hey! Watch it!” Faim snapped, glaring at the smug teenager who had a mischievous smirk plastered across his face.

“What's the matter? Can't handle a quick jab?” Axel teased as he waved his arnis stick in a circular motion then poked the air merely inches away from Faim's jaw tauntingly.

“That makes one.” The arnis instructor stated before the others chose who to practice arnis with. Faim furrowed his eyebrows and glared at Axel who still grinned cynically. Slate eyes beamed with malice.