Nocturnal I: Silver and Blood

Chapter 4: The Incident In Transylvania

Ten Years Later

Manchester, England 1895

In the library was a training ring set for two sparring partners. Adam Hunt stood wearing his usual brown long coat and hood, while he watched his grown-up apprentice Frederick Calvin draw out a wooden practice sword pointing toward him. The once tragic child is now a young adult who is eighteen now and will soon be ready to face vampires on his own. But before Frederick could leave the old man that raised him for ten years now, he must defeat him in a practice match. Frederick wore a white buttoned-down shirt with black suspenders which held his black pants up and he wore brown strapped down thick boots. Fred flipped his sword in a semicircle with his right hand and placed his clenched left hand behind his back. The sword was pointing to the ground as he faced his master Adam with an expressionless face, but without showing any emotion through his body he was concentrated on getting his one and only hit out of the ten years of training and studying with a man like Adam to teach him. Adam with the edge of his wooden sword resting on his shoulder with his right hand begins to smile at Frederick's expression knowing that he's trying to find a way to defeat him.

   The killer in his eyes, it's truly frightening the vampires will have what's coming to them in London soon. I hope Jonathan will take care of him as I send him away, thought Adam as he placed both hands on the grip of his sword.

  "Now attack!" ordered Adam as he began to nod his head backward to signal Frederick to come at him.

   Frederick begins to sprint forward in tremendous agile speed like a professional field runner and turns his body while running, to prepare for a spinning attack which will hopefully become unpredictable. Adam stood there in his two gripped stance concentrating his deadly eyes on Fred's form and realizes this isn't gonna be a regular strike. With it all going according to Fred's plan he leaps as he was nine feet away and jumps spinning in mid-air with his swording pointing out with a wide swing. The spinning attack pushes Adam back as the force of the three spinning blows begin to hit his practice sword making it lose balance with his aim. Fred goes in for an overhead chop on Adam, but Adam blocks the chopping attack with his sword facing horizontal above him and pushes Fred off of him after their swords made contact. Adam begins to curse and swing his sword at Frederick six times, but every hit was parried by Fred's sword, and Adam knew he was getting more use to his blows now after all of those years of Fred losing to him. Before Adam could swing back, Fred aims for a horizontal slash at the gut and goes for it, but Adam backstepped quickly and clashed right back in. The two men were both formidable as the dance continued with their wooden practice swords waving back and forth at each other but right now there was only room for one champion in this sparring match.

"You're making me so proud, Frederick!" yelled Adam as he continued to block Fredericks strong attacks.

"No, time for talk Master!" replied Frederick with his mature voice giving Adam a nice reminder that they are in battle now.

"You remember to seal your tongue when we are fighting! That's my boy!" cheered Adam on offense again as Frederick's defense seemed to become impossible to break.

   When Fred and Adam were blades locked, they both attacked at the same time with the same force. Struggling to exit the blade lock Adam smiled devilishly at Frederick with approval of his skills with a sword and Fred smiled back briefly until his eyes were deadly fixed on the blade lock they were in. Fred knees Adam in the gut during the blade lock and Adam staggers backward with his blade lowered and his left hand on his belly. Frederick with enough speed and time sweep kicks Adam making him fall on his back, then he finally aims the sword at his heart but doesn't make contact. Adam looked up at his young apprentice surprised with his breath taken away by his fast finish and realizes Fred is ready to face the creatures of the night now that he is on the ground with a sword aiming at a vital point. Adam would've been dead if this was a real fight, his age has finally gotten to him he was now in his early sixties and he has not enough skill like in his younger years to fight vampires.