Ptar: Ceilus and the revolution

8. Weapons Class

The wind wasn't strong, but, at the distance he was from his target, it would greatly impact the missile's path. Holding his bow with his right hand, Ceilus dipped his left hand's index finger in his mouth and raised it in the air. With his left eye wide open and his right one closed, Ceilus pointed, "a little bit to the left" Ceilus thought, adjusting his aim. The arrow's feather tickled the upper part of his cheek. He let go. The arrow flew, making a majestic arch in the air and, as predicted, curving to the right, nailing the target right in its middle. Ceilus loved to use the bow. It required a lot of skill and, when it hit, it gave off a great feeling. Ceilus felt good about his archery skills, they took third place in the school's ranking, following Jeffery and Arlen.

Being an archer was, by far, the safest option in a battlefield, too far for any lousy front line to easily reach, and, if well positioned, out of the range of the enemy archers, so, all around, archers were secure.

Every non-storer cadet was required to take both the athletics and the weapons classes, in which, unlike in other classes, all grades were put together. This was for "the encouragement of new cadets to hold their own against their older peers" as Lather, the head teacher of the weapons class, which had plenty more teachers, each expert in a weapon, distributed around the fields, to cover the over three hundred cadets frequenting the class, said. 

Ceilus was located in the most northern part of the training fields, the area designated for archery training, its targets being located in expansive fields, to, well, the north, away from all the other training spots, for obvious safety reasons. Roven, who was in the eastern part of the training camps, in an area used for the training of hand to hand combat, swordsmanship (Roven's specialty) and knife wielding, had found a sparring partner, with him were Rose and Uster, who dueled using wooden knives. Rose went for a high kick. Uster blocked with his left arm and swung with his right, trying to land the wooden blade on Rose's waste. Rose turned, caught Uster's arm, stopping the knife in its tracks. She turned it, putting the friend under stress and forcing him to turn the way she wanted, soon enough she had him immobilized with her wooden blade around the boy's throat. The poor second year had nothing against the schools best knife wilder and hand to hand combatant.

"Are you even trying?" Rose taunted, Uster, releasing him and getting back to the initial position, giving the knife a spin, ready for another round.

"Trust me, I'm trying my best," Uster said, massaging his arm.

Lily was somewhat of a jack of all trades, most other people chose a weapon to specialize in, but there were a few who, like Lily, didn't have a preference and roamed from one area to the other of the training fields, one day the axe, the other the bow. Today Lily was training her war hammer skills, in the center of the training fields. She had a hard time with it. Seeing as she had a small stature, she used the smallest, lightest, war hammer there was in the academy. War-hammer wielding was hard. For it to be effective there was the need for the person to put their weight behind every swing, but put too much of your weight in it and you'll be flying off along with it. Arlen, who was training his swing on some dummies, made of straw and steel, seemed to be able to do this without any trouble. One swing and the straw had been decapitated. Preserving the weapon's speed, he took it around his back and back for another hit, leaving a deep dent in the dummy's metal chest, as always, Arlen excelled. Lily, on the other hand, wasn't that good in any weapon, it wasn't that she was physically inept, quite the contrary, but no weapon had taken onto her so far. Mr. Lather, who held the opinion that any Ptarian soldier unable to use a war hammer was a disgrace, begrudgingly tutored Lily. "No, no! Your stance is all wrong!" He protested, gesticulating,"Look, like this, hold your arms higher, knees bent, and for god sakes stop being thrown around by your own weapon!" Lily tried her best to comply.