The guys and I were waiting in the gym for the last of the others to arrive. I had stored the fighting leathers that I’d had made for them in the weapons store but now they were sat next to me I was excited to pass them out. I just hope everyone likes them and it wasn’t weird. I don’t have that much experience with the whole friend thing but I was pretty sure that this was weird. Maybe. Okay now I’m pretty sure that I’m just overthinking it. The last few filtered into the gym and everyone took up position stretching out around the space. It made me weirdly proud. Maybe there is something a bit wrong with me.
“Right, everyone, as you know we only have today and then one last training session before the competition. Let’s face it, you don’t need any more sessions specifically for the competition so I thought we would just do something different.” I walked over to the weapons store and threw open the door. Now that it had been tidied and someone had mojo’ed up proper storage cabinets it actually looked pretty impressive. “Who wants to play with knifes?” I grinned. Everyone filed into the room and started looking around.
“This is cool!” Britt said picking up a long dagger.
“I think that this would suit you better.” I said pulling out the katana that I had been restoring today. It was the perfect size for her and with the way that she fought I knew that she would be able to work well with it. Once Britt set eyes on the katana it was almost like love at first sight and I laughed as she jumped up and down in excitement. “Everyone look around, see if there is something that catches your eye and then let’s meet back outside.”
Caleb stepped inside the weapons room. “Is it still okay if I join you?” he asked.
“Of course,” I smiled, “grab something that takes your fancy.”
Britt was out the door with the katana and examining it while everyone else rummaged through the draws and cabinets. Most of them came out with some form of sword, daggers or a combination of both. All my guys had picked a double edged sword and a long dagger.
“Okay, so the purpose of this lesson is to start to familiarise yourselves with moving through the sequences that we have already learnt while incorporating a blade. First, you’re going to want to spent some time familiarising yourselves with the blade that you’ve chosen so that you can get used to the weight distribution and how it moves.” Everyone had already started to take some practice swipes with their weapons. I pulled one of my short swords into my hand and started to move through the sequences introducing moving the weapon through them. “Just watch how I move for now. If you’ve picked up dual blades or axes, if you’re an over achiever, set one down and just work with one for now. We will bring in dual blades later.” I spent the next half an hour moving through three of the sequences one after the other then repeating. The others joined in with me after observing a few rounds. Caleb had taken up position nearer to the back but I could see the smile starting on his face and I was glad. He clearly needed a break. By the end of the half an hour we were all moving together and they were using the blades as competently as if they had been using them for months. Even Caleb seemed pretty proficient for someone who earlier in the day seemed to have an aversion to using a blade. I only had to make a few adjustments to the weapons which they had chosen but they had naturally seemed to pick the ones that best suited them. The only times I had to make an adjustment to a different blade for them was if they needed a heavier weighted blade or something slightly shorter. It was impossible, it was definitely something to do with magic, it was also kind of cool.
After an hour we all sat down for a water break and the group sat around playing with their new toys. “It’s definitely you,” Caleb said, “I can feel the difference.” He glanced down at his watch before he swore and suddenly jumped to his feet. “Shit, I’m late. Sorry Aria I have a meeting with the headmaster. This was really fun though.” He shouted over his shoulder as he started to jog from the room.
“You’re welcome any time.” I shouted at his retreated back. “Does this freak any of you out?” I suddenly asked the rest of the group.
“What do you mean?” Britt asked sliding the katana back into its scabbard.
“That my magic affects you all like this. You know that this is not normal right?” I spun my finger round the group.
“Yeah of course it’s not normal but nah, why would be bothered?” Britt asked.
“I don’t know, because it’s influencing you.” This was making me feel weirdly awkward. What if they all said yes?
“It’s not influencing us Aria. We’re still the same. All your magic does is help us learn quicker.” Britt reasoned. “We came to you to help us learn to fight and that’s what you’ve done. You haven’t done anything that we didn’t first come to you and ask for.”
“Talking of,” I said standing up and grabbing one of the boxes. “When we get through the competition and show the school what you guys are made of, we’re going to be rolling out an Elite training program. You guys are officially the first recruits.” I said pulling out the first set of fighting leathers, “if you want to be that is.”
“Fuck yeah,” Sykes said bouncing up and pulling a set of leathers out of the box. “Not sure that these are going to fit me though” he said holding up some female leathers.
“Yours are in the other box.” I laughed.
“These are so kick ass” he said, holding up a set that were actually made for him.
“You know you’re going to have to save them for the competition, right?” I told him knowing that he was seconds away from throwing them on.
“Awww” he said dropping his hands in defeat. He had the most adorable almost pout on his face.
