The Gate Hopper Series

Chapter 9

[Floor Saint Nicolette—COE HQ Training Hall 43]

[ID: Erin Elretz—COE/Member—0 stars]

[Training Week One]

Erin watched Osmet and Anton trade strikes with their simple metal swords. The fact that they were both bladed might have concerned Erin if they didn't have their new suits. Speaking of which, they were awesome! Temperature regulation, pattern matching, armor protection, they practically had it all!

Erin winced as Osmet fell back onto the floor. That was not a gentle landing.

"Quite the improvement from a week ago if I do say so Osmet, keep up the good work! Weiss your up next!" Said Anton.

Today marked their eight day of training. Ove the last week or so Anton put them through rigorous physical conditioning. Every night Erin fell asleep as soon as his head hit the bed.

Weapons training was after physical conditioning. Erin looked down from the spar to the weapons laid on the floor next to him.

On his right was the shotgun that he had come to absolutely love. Its power was explosive, but it kicked like a mule. Each type of SME used to power it produced a different type of projectile. Grey was standard bullets, blue was armor piercing, green was larger shots and purple was explosive. Purple was his favorite by far. He never knew that SME weapons had so many functions.

Looking to his left Erin's mood plummeted when he saw his spear. Erin had been...slow to pick things up ever since he was young. The shotgun didn't require too much skill. Just point, pull and try to survive the recoil. But the spear? That was another story entirely. It was a spear, you just picked it up and stabbed at people, right? Wrong.

"Good work Weiss! I see you've gotten stronger!"

The mass on the floor groaned indicating that it was in fact Weiss. He felt bad for her, Weiss had it the worst of them all. Every day she quite latterly fell to the floor in exhaustion. Something about being born with a weaker constitution.

Despite her lack of physical strength, she picked things up freakishly fast. With only a week's training she was practically doing tricks with it. Give her a few years and she might as well be a training master. He was happy for her, he really was. But it only served to make the difference between the two of them more apparent.

Erin winced when his name was called.

"Erin come on up boy! Time to put that practice into action!" called Anton.

Erin let out a sigh of defeat.

'Time to face the music I guess. You just had to leave home for this didn't you Erin? What was so bad with becoming a farmer besides...well...never mind I'd take this any day.'

Spear in hand, Erin stood before Anton. Mercifully, Anton also had a spear. They had learned over the past week that Anton was a martial arts and equipment master. He could disarm each of them in seconds with only his bare hands. Readying himself Anton signaled Erin to make the first move.

Erin lunged forward and thrusted his spear. Anton deflected it to the side with his shaft and repeated his strike in turn. Sidestepping, Erin attempted to reflect Antons attack in turn. By doing so he overextended allowing Anton to regain his footing and step back. Their dance of thrust, sidesteps and counters continued for a few minutes.

Attempting to gain the upper hand, Erin aimed for Anton's chest with a thrust. Anton shifted his spear sideways and lifted it upwards while crouching. This forced Erin forwards and off balance. Anton took this opportunity to strike the side of Erin with the hilt of the spear. Despite holding back significantly he still threw Erin to the floor, signaling the end of the match.