Archery Mastery

Artillian was standing in a flat opening, staring at the eastern horizon. It was sunrise and the sun was greeting the world, signaling the start of a brand new day.

Artillian was dressed in basic leather armor and had a bow in his left hand, while an arrow rested in his right.

A quiver filled with arrows was on his back, held in place by a chain that was flung diagonally across Artillian's back and chest.

The bow and arrows were made of ordinary metals and were far from valuable. Most soldiers would even disdain using them because they didn't even have basic enhancements. Such a bow would only be useful when fighting opponents that could not use Spiritual Energy.

The clearing was littered with thousands of arrows, randomly lying about as if an archery festival had occurred the night before. Artillian had his eyes closed despite the fact that he was facing the morning sun. 

His breaths were cool, calm, and steady. Building up a rhythmic momentum with each inhalation and relaxing his body with each exhalation. 

Spiritual Energy coursed through his Spiritual Pathways and caused the air around his body to become a bit restless. Leaves were pushed about by small air currents that became faster and faster with each breath. The changes were small and barely noticeable at first. But with time, the winds around Artillian started to become turbulent. Just like his energy.

"Let me start at the beginning. You already know this, but at first, he would just come out and test his archery. He was exceedingly poor, clearly an amateur. But his talent was visible."

Kane's flat machine-like voice was not loud, but everyone near could hear his words clearly, "On the first day he could barely hit a target from 100 meters. After only a few days and thousands of shots fired, he was able to hit a bullseye from a hundred meters every  3 shots. After a week, he became able to make the shot while running. After a fortnight he was able to make the shot in the middle of almost any motion, from a sudden jump to a mid-air twist with some sort of spell enhancement. After a month, he could hit any target within 400 meters regardless of his posture or form so long as that spell was active."

Eden had already been informed of this in greater detail in text messages, but it felt surreal. The young general felt that he had to hear these words in person and see with his own eyes what was transpiring. Physical Enhancement spells were rare and took time to learn. They required an extremely good teacher as well.

"But that's not the problem." Said Kane after a dramatic pause, "The issue is that his movements seem experienced. He has been teaching himself archery this whole time. From scratch. No matter how talented one is, no matter how many books he has read, orthodox forms and skills need a teacher to realize. 

He came to me for tips, but moments like this were rare. If he came to me for advice, it was less about weapons and more about Spiritualist theory. 

How to hold a bow, posture, timing, and arrow placement. These things can only come with experience and good teaching. Yet he started showing signs of mastery in these departments without me telling him anything. This goes beyond my understanding, which is why I couldn't compile a proper report to master and requested for your presence. But that isn't all."

Eden focused his sight on Artillian's hand and saw that each finger had a silver ring. The rings were seemingly ordinary and plain, but there was a faint aura of heaviness that lingered around them.

"The rings each weigh about 2 kilograms. That means he has 20 kilograms of weight on his fingers alone. As you know he has been wearing these from the start of the training. He has only taken them off intermittently in the past, to adjust to shooting without weight on his fingers, but most of his progress happened with them on." 

"So these are the enchanted rings the boy requested. Interesting. What's his dynamic range with them on, assuming he has the spell activated? How long does the spell last?" Asked a pleased Eden. He had been unable to receive texts from Kane in the past few days because he had been on a covert mission. He had switched off his mobile device to avoid being tracked in enemy territory and had only switched it on when he was close to the castle. He was looking forward to receiving a pleasant surprise so he did not mind waiting. Hence he was a bit behind on Artillian's progress.

"Assuming the spell is active, from any posture it's 500 meters give or take. With them on, he can shoot in any posture or form at 500 meters and not miss. Without them, it's about 700 meters. If he had spent more time practicing without the rings, the distance could have reached 900. But he opted to first work on increasing the range he had with the rings on. As for the spells duration, it's about 10 minutes if his energy reserves are full."

Training with weights was as common as drinking tea with sugar. But it was not as simple as most would think. One also had to train without weights to get the body used to balancing the output of strength. 

For archers, controlling one's strength was far more important than most weapons, because a small deviation in muscular control can cause a massive error, leading a shot to miss. 

Eden had prepared himself mentally but he still could not help but let out a whistle when he saw Artillian's posture. 

'He already has the form of an experienced archer. I can tell, even without Kane telling me, that Artillian is now skilled with a bow.'

His subordinates knew that their master was impressed. Eden was quite cheeky and expressive. This made him easy to approach and made him popular among his retinue. But he was in no way lenient on them. On the contrary, he was very demanding.

'There is no doubt about it. His divine spirit is a weapon divinity. One capable of transferring weapon mastery to their host. Artillian must have incredible compatibility with the divine spirit to receive such a boon. To pass on elemental attributes is easy, but passing on weapon mastery is another thing entirely.'