LINEAGE

Chapter 15

It was a beautiful morning at the garrison. The slight overcast provided a comfortable amount of shade from the morning sun. A slight cool breeze blew throughout the area, carrying a few strands of Elianna's hair that fluttered on her face. Elianna's lips curved into a small, content smile as she closed her eyes and raised her head, enjoying the cool early morning temperature and the sounds of the birds chirping nearby.

A rattling knocked Elianna out of her thoughts, and she looked to the side toward the sound. She observed as her father was carrying three small silver disc-shaped targets tied to straps, dangling from his hand and hitting each other like chimes. Lucian approached one of the target dummies to the side of the headquarters building and started attaching the targets. He placed two targets on the dummy's torso, one on each side and another on its head.

Elianna tilted her head slightly, looking at the targets curiously, "What are those for?"

Lucian finished securing the last target before he turned and smiled at his daughter. "Accuracy training." He pointed to the small discs. "While you've been doing well with your ranged attacks, it is good to practice your accuracy. When you tend to practice on a smaller target, your accuracy increases; as you aim small, you miss small."

Elianna nodded, studying the three small discs, "So I just knock down all three from a distance?" She confidently smiled, "That's easy enough."

Lucian chuckled, "We'll see. You will also be dashing side to side as you release your magic. You do well moving, stopping, and then attacking from a distance. But, for this training, you will be attacking while on the move. As you will soon discover, it's a different concept than just standing still and throwing a ranged attack."

Elianna nodded, looking at the target, before she looked at her father curiously, "What about hitting a moving target?"

Lucian smiled, "That, we will save for after you master this training. Hitting a moving target is also a different concept, especially hitting a moving target as you're moving as well."

Elianna scratched her head, staring at the targets, "Sounds complicated."

Lucian let out a small laugh, "It's not as complicated as you might think, Munchkin. Now, go ahead and get stretched out. You will be moving a lot for this training."

Elianna nodded and began stretching her arms, extending them across her chest and over her head. Next, she worked on stretching her legs and her back, wanting to ensure she was nice and limber. She didn't listen to her father once about the importance of stretching and came to regret it, as she was sore for the next few days.

Lucian adjusted the targets, making sure they weren't too close to each other. Once he was finished, he looked at his daughter curiously, "Ready?"

"Almost," Elianna said as she leaned to her right, getting a deep stretch to her legs. She stood straight, rolling her neck, "I'm going to do a small warm-up run if that's okay."

Lucian smiled, "Of course that's okay. I'll wait here."

Elianna nodded, smiled, and quickly waved to her father, "I'll be back!"

Elianna turned and began to run off just as her father yelled he would be timing her. Elianna chuckled, knowing her father was aware of how competitive she was and how she was always trying to beat her run times. She ran her usual path, heading towards the first battalion building. Normally, she would run approximately two miles for her regular runs; however, for her warm-up runs, she would run about half a mile since she didn't want to tire herself out before training.

Noises of metal clashing against metal and explosions filled Elianna's ears as she began to run past the first battalion building. Looking toward the noise, she observed several knights and mages outside the building, either doing their morning physical exercise or training. Elianna smiled with admiration, watching the knights dash around, striking each other or their dummies as they trained.