Armament X Time

The two brothers, who were eager to test Kelle's mettle, quickly led him over to a small warehouse that was right beside the training grounds.

"Hey Rock! While we're in here make sure ye grab another shield." said Stone as he had a joking smile on his face.

Opening the creaking wooden door that looked as if it had stood there for at least a decade or two, Rock grumbled something under his breath at the comment as they made their way inside the old armory.

As soon as Kelle entered, he could almost feel his heart beating out of his chest, scanning the armory. There were multiple rows of weapons and assortments ranging from small wooden swords all the way to some of the heaviest looking polearms he had seen in his life.

'It's hard to believe there isn't anyone stationed here.' He thought seeing no attendants.

"Don't be thinkin' about grabbing anything else too, just grab what only what's necessary. The last time someone thought they could try and smuggle some of the weapons out was dead before the end of the day." Stone said as a warning.

Kelle nodded his head sheepishly wondering if his thoughts were that obvious, he didn't think about it anymore and scanning the room for a spear that he deemed acceptable while Rock went off on his own to some random corner to grab a spare shield.

Sneaking a peek over at Kelle, Stone thought to himself, 'Although he's got a bit of a temper, it ain't too bad. But it looks like he might be some kind of battle maniac with the way he's starin' at some of those weapons.'

While being amused and somewhat unsettled at Kelle's 'passionate' gaze Stone cleared his throat and took a step over to Kelle "Go ahead and grab one ye like, these are all standard-issue weapons for us normal soldiers to use."

"Although there isn't anything too fancy or well forged, they should hold their edge for a few fights at least." Stone added.

Only half registering Stone's words Kelle leapt forward which made the old wooden floor creak as he rushed deeper into the armory as he spotted something.

'This lad…' Stone sighed as he watched Kelle.

Kelle rushed up past some odd looking glaives and found a spear that was laying up against the wall, it looked like just about every other spear that was propped up. The only difference was that it matched the look of the spear Kelle used to train with in the Lord's Manor.

For years, the only thing Kelle had to entertain himself with was the spear he'd picked up outside of the Manor's Guard barracks by luck. The guards didn't notice it go missing, and no one saw him practice, as he'd made sure to stay out of sight at the Manor's lake.

There was no one to teach him, and all of the guards used some type of longsword so Kelle just started simply swinging it around and could only envision fighting against some invisible opponent. Even though he had never been in a fight involving weapons before.

Kelle thought about the ways he could try and train himself, and one glaring thing popped out; why didn't the enemy just grab the shaft of the spear? Once he thought about it more, he was pretty unsettled thinking about the possible tragic death just because someone caught it.

Kelle didn't know if his logic was right or wrong since he hadn't been in that situation and had never had actual combat experience, so the only thing he could do was prepare for all the situations he thought up in his head. Most of them had one thing in common: speed.

Instead of thinking and preparing for some fictional encounter of what a real fight would contain, Kelle arrived at the thought process of; 'The one thing that matters in a fight is Time, and the faster I am, the less time the enemy will have to use their techniques to kill me.'

Placing his hand on the rugged and thick shaft, Kelle gripped it with practiced ease. A smirk grew on his face as he turned to Stone and gave him a cheeky nod, "I'm ready whenever you are; you might end up regretting underestimating me."

"Nyehaha! That's what I like to hear lad! Just don't get too full of yourself when ya hit the ground cryin'." Stone bellowed back in a wide smile as he looked deeper into the armory at the figure of Rock coming back with a comically sized shield.

"Bout' time ya finished picking one out; the lad already had his picked out a bit before you, ya old thing." Stone grinned as he could guess why Rock had gotten a bigger shield.

"Hmph, I was just lookin' for something that might help me against an old cheater like you. How am I even supposed to block somethin' that feels like a boulder about to crush you flat into the ground?" Rock grumbled back.

The two continued their bickering back and forth for a bit as Kelle amusedly followed them back over to the grounds, leaving the dusty old armory as a few more people went in after them.

The grounds were still pretty full with people sparring, it also looked like there was some captains going over drills with their teams. Kelle looked over and even saw a man in some fancier looking equipment that was leading a much larger team, there was probably at least a hundred men all doing synchronized drills with their swords.

"Eh, this spot will do. We won't be fightin' on the sand like earlier too. We just have a habit of sparring in there since it helps us with our balance," said Stone as he glanced over at Kelle. Rock, in the meantime, found a comfy-looking spot to watch the show from.

"Don't worry about injurin' me too, even if yer' scampy little self managed to hit me we have a Doctor with a pretty powerful Regalia in our camp. You'll probably be needing to give him a visit after this." He joked while setting himself up a distance away from Kelle, there was also a noticeable shift in his eyes as he gave a stare down from a meter or two away.

Feeling the shift in the air, Kelle had never experienced anything like it and they hadn't even begun. He had to clench his grip around the spear tighter to stop himself from shaking as the excitement made his blood pump wildly.

"Prepare yourself lad-!" Stone said as he seemed to get ready to rush forward.

Just as Kelle was thinking of how he was going to intercept him, he noticed on his arm the crimson Regalia had a twinge of a clashing silvery light as the world seemed to slow down around him.