Chapter 11: Adaptation (1)

Training hall. Seven years ago.

In the middle of the hall, a handsome blond boy with green eyes was making sharp lunges with a spear. He appeared to be around sixteen years old.

Various swords hung on the wall of the hall: short, two-handed, rapiers, sabers and so on. However, the blond firmly held onto the spear shaft. Although he was striking at the air, his strikes were incredibly lightning-fast and so powerful that the air began to tremble. A small stream of wind emanated from his strikes.

The hall was almost empty. Besides the blond, only one lonely boy with black hair and blue eyes was in the hall. He had a very cute and charming face, and he could even be mistaken for a girl because of his fairly long hair, the tips of which reached the middle of his neck. The hair itself was tousled and stuck out in different directions.

Daniel sat on the tatami mat with a bored expression on his face, watching his older brother practice with the spear.

"I don't understand why you're doing this, Arti." Daniel abruptly interrupted the prolonged silence and yawned. His voice was quite squeaky for a twelve-year-old boy, which made it even more easy to mistake him for a girl.

"What am I doing?" Arthur did not lose concentration and continued to make fast and sharp strikes at the air.

"Don't pretend. You know what I mean." Daniel frowned.

"You mean that I'm practicing with a spear, not a sword?" Arthur abruptly made one heavy strike at the air, causing the floor of the training hall to slightly shake. However, Daniel did not seem impressed by this.

"Exactly. Our father is the king of swords, not spears. He'll be angry if he finds out what you're doing."

Daniel got up abruptly and walked over to the wall with the swords. He took a rapier in his hands and stood three meters away from Arthur.

Arthur abruptly stopped training. He turned to face Daniel and smiled friendly. The blond watched with amusement as Daniel tried to repeat what he had done, but instead of a spear, Daniel used a rapier.

"Put your right foot a little further and your legs wider, Danny." Arthur calmly watched his younger brother.

"I know!" Daniel snapped irritably and did as his brother said.

"Tempo, Danny. Watch your tempo. When you take a rapier, remember that your strikes should be faster than those with a spear."

"Enough! I know all this! Why do you start teaching me right away?! Can't I just wave a rapier for myself? You're just like Dad, everything has to be strict and by the rules."

Arthur smiled. He walked over to Daniel and patted him on the head. Daniel frowned and blushed slightly, but he didn't say anything to the blond.

"Our father, Danny, has his own vision of the world. I have mine. You will have yours too. You don't have to blindly imitate someone and only do what you're told."

"What do you mean? Are you saying that if I love swords, it's because Dad commands it, not me?"

"I mean, Danny, that not all of our father's words are true. As his son, you should listen to what he says, but you don't have to follow his words. If you love swords, great. I love swords more than any other blade too. But you shouldn't limit yourself to just one blade. You never know what might come in handy on the battlefield."

"Do you want to go fight with a whole arsenal of weapons? When I become a legionnaire of light, I'll fight and cut all the monsters with one sword, even though I'll carry two! They'll all remember my real sword and piss their pants every time I unsheathe it. I can imagine it now! An intense battle is raging! I'm fighting with one of the Apostles of the Realm of Darkness! We're evenly matched, neither I nor the Apostle can win. Our strengths are equal... And then I unsheathe my real sword and say to the Apostle, 'It's time for a real battle, baby. All this time, I've been using my spare sword, and with it, I only use 30% of my strength. Now you can't escape your death, pitiful dirty spawn. Say goodbye, because today you've messed with a tough guy.' Oh, it's so cool! I have goosebumps just thinking about it. Everyone around will be amazed and say: 'This guy is so tough and cool!' Especially Dad! He's like, 'Yes, that's my son!' Hey, are you laughing over there?"

Arthur covered his mouth with his hand and turned away. Daniel frowned and blushed.

"No-no, go on. I also imagined it and... Pff... Very cool... Yes... Tough guy, yeah... Pff..." Arthur tried to hold back his laughter.

"Shut up! It's very cool, you just don't understand!" Daniel became red and angry.

"Okay-okay, sorry, really. I'm sure there are people who will really think it's cool."

"Exactly! You're just always focused on your training and have lost touch with the real world! You don't know what's cool and what's not right now!"

"As you say, Danny. As you say. But getting back to our conversation... You know... On the battlefield, everything is a little different than what you imagine... Father took me there with him only once, but I remember everything perfectly, Danny..."

Suddenly, Daniel's gloominess and resentment disappeared. With sparkling eyes full of admiration, he stared intently at Arthur. Sitting on his knees next to his brother, he listened carefully.

"It's not as beautiful as you think. The battle is not one-on-one. It's non-stop... Everyone tries to kill each other in every way possible, no one thinks about looking cool and stylish, you understand? There are corpses everywhere... You stand covered in blood and don't understand... Whose blood is it? Mine? The monster's? My comrade's? Friend's..."

Arthur darkened, but then immediately smiled friendly seeing the shocked look on the boy's face.

"The point is, Danny, that no matter how much you want to, your weapon won't always be with you. Maybe the monsters will break it, maybe you'll drop it somewhere out of shock and lose it. In those moments when you don't have a weapon, people pick up the first blade they see on the ground, you understand? Everyone starts adapting to the fight as best they can. Adaptation is a key element in surviving in war. However, you will feel much more confident if you pick up a blade from the ground, knowing at least the basics of how to use it. For example, if I pick up a spear, I already have some idea of how to fight with it, you understand, Danny?"

The boy nodded. However, Arthur noticed the puzzled and depressed expression on Daniel's face.

"What's wrong, Dani? Don't you understand something?"

"I understand... It's just, well... Then it turns out... If I pick up a weapon from the ground and if I don't know how to use it, well, the basics... Does that mean I'll die?"

Arthur shook his head and gave Daniel a sharp slap on the forehead.

"Ouch! Why?"

"Don't ever think like that, Danny. You can't think like that ever. If you find yourself on the battlefield, you can't have even a shred of doubt. All you have to do is adapt, remember? I told you that not everything always goes as you want it to. In battles, the most important thing is not strength, skills or cunning. The most important thing is decisiveness and adaptation, got it, Danny?"

"What does decisiveness and adaptation have to do with it? How will it help me if I pick up some axe that I've never even held before? I won't even be able to strike properly, I'll get into some wrong position, slip, break my neck and then end up in the video 'Top 10 Most Ridiculous Deaths of Legionnaires of Light'."

"Adaptation involves adapting your mind and body to changes, Danny. When you find yourself in an unfamiliar environment, situation, or facing something unknown, you shouldn't ask yourself how to do it. You need to do it, Danny. You push all extraneous thoughts aside and start thinking quickly. For example, let's say you picked up an axe. You shouldn't think about not knowing how to use it. You should think about how to quickly adapt it to yourself. To do this, you need to immediately remember something you are familiar with. In our case, we remember the sword. We know how to handle a sword. But we picked up an axe. But that's not so bad. You just need to quickly understand their differences. What are the advantages of an axe over a sword, what is similar, and what is not. The axe is heavier, so the blows will be stronger but slower. So you won't be able to swing it as fast as a sword. Your axe strikes must be precise and only delivered when you are sure they will produce results. Axe strikes are so powerful that they can stun an opponent. Then, Danny. After I understood the differences and similarities of my new weapon - I start to look at myself through the eyes of my enemy. How he doesn't want me to attack. What would be beneficial for him, what wouldn't, how he sees my weaknesses and strengths. Then, having put all the pieces of the puzzle together..., adapting to the situation, you attack the enemy without hesitation and defeat him. Do you understand now, Danny? Danny? Hey, did you fall asleep? Are you for real right now, Danny? Oh, God... Boy... I need a break..."

***

Daniel tensed up. The message that popped up in front of him brought only bad news.

Crafting time remaining: [0 minutes 13 seconds.]

He had thirteen seconds left to withstand a battle with an armed monster. Moreover, the monster had jumped into the pit with him, so Daniel couldn't escape. If he tried, the monster would attack him when he climbed out of the pit.

"You're an unpleasant guy." Daniel said calmly to the Mountain Monkey, who began to make quick and sharp knife strikes that Daniel barely avoided.

He couldn't jump aside, but he managed to block the Monkey's sharp attacks with his palm. The Mountain Monkey's height was at Daniel's stomach level, so Mountain Monkey tried to thrust it`s sharp blade into his stomach.

In some cases, the Monkey managed to dodge Daniel's palms and get her knife as close to his stomach as possible, but in these cases, Daniel firmly grasped the Monkey's wrist and threw it aside.

The Mountain Monkey became even more furious and rushed at Daniel with renewed vigor.

This time, the Mountain Monkey stopped aiming specifically for Daniel's stomach. It began to make disorderly and unpredictable strikes, leaving deep cuts on Daniel's legs and a couple of times the monkey's knife left a few small cuts on his stomach.

In addition, the Mountain Monkey guessed to use her second hand and tried to slow down and hold Daniel in place by firmly grasping him.

Daniel couldn't forget about the Monkey's tail either, which looked three times larger and more dangerous than the Macaque's. However, for some reason, the Monkey's tail didn't move at all.

The Mountain Monkey continued to attack Daniel relentlessly and fiercely. A couple of times he struck it in the face with his new footwear, but the Monkey immediately tried to take advantage of the openings in Daniel's defense and thrust its knife into his groin. But by this point, Daniel was already raging inside, delivering furious and rapid kicks to the Monkey. He threw the monster back with his kicks and prevented the Monkey from stabbing him in the groin.

Daniel didn't know how much time had passed, but he could no longer withstand the fierce onslaught of attacks from the Mountain Monkey.

`How much time was left? Why was it taking so long?` The dark-haired young man quickly tried to summon his stone knife, but the window showed that there were only three seconds left.

`Had it only been ten seconds? It felt like an eternity had passed!`

Suddenly, the Monkey jumped at Daniel. The tip of the Mountain Monkey's knife tried to introduce itself to Daniel's stomach. Daniel calmly jumped back, but unexpectedly, the Monkey's sharp and long tail began to move and tried to pierce Daniel's genitals. He immediately grabbed the tail with one hand, but the Monkey seemed to have anticipated this move. The distance between them was reduced to a minimum. Daniel could no longer dodge or jump away from monster`s blade, which whistled as it flew towards his stomach.

"Stone knife." Quickly said Daniel.

Suddenly, a knife appeared in his hand, which blocked the Mountain Monkey's attack.