Inferno Legacy: Loyalty of the Dragon (Book Two)

Chapter 23

"The first thing they'll test you on is your battle skills," Thoughtful explained as they all re-entered the massive, colorful hall.

Their lunch had been short. They were all led to a small room where they ate a brief meal of roasted pork with mushrooms and beans, one of the least extravagant meals to the Dreamkeepers, before the entire group returned. At that point, Cody began to tense with nervousness at the fact that he would be tested by such a powerful group of mentors, at least as far as he had seen. It was very likely that they would be surprised by how little he knew, and Inferno was just as nervous.

Their battle instructor, Fearless, stepped forward, his long green hair rolling about him, before he spoke to them, "Alright Cody, Avalsmokes, and Omen, I will test your battle skill, as Thoughtful said. Inferno, Destiny, and Ashheart, it will be Playful's job to test your battle skill."

"What will you have us do?" Avalsmokes asked, most excited of the three men.

"First is Cody. Have you got your weapons?" Fearless asked.

Thoughtful stepped forward and handed a very large bag to Cody, saying, "It took some work, but I was able to convince the king to release your weapons to us."

Cody easily felt his heavy, double-sided battle axe inside the bag and thanked his mentor profusely, getting only a nod of acknowledgement from the man. From the bag he pulled out his axe, sword, bow, and all of his arrows, suddenly overjoyed to see them. The axe, he suddenly realized however, felt much too large and sluggish in his arms. Shrugging to himself he put his bow and sheath of arrows on his back and belted on his sword.

With weapons but no armor, he felt strangely exposed, but he quickly shook off the feeling and passed the bag to Avalsmokes. From the bag Avalsmokes pulled his old family heirloom: the jewel-encrusted dual swords, which he belted to his waist before putting the empty bag down.

"Haven't you got a weapon?" Fearless asked curiously.

"No sir," Omen answered slowly. "But I have wielded a hammer my whole life; I was a blacksmith for over a decade before I left my home."

Fearless smiled and rushed over to Cody. Wordlessly he picked up Cody's axe and looked into the rider's eyes for permission to take it. Cody nodded his head in agreement and his mentor brought the massive axe over to Omen before holding it out to him expectantly.

"Your axe?" Omen asked in amazement. "Are you sure Cody?"

"It doesn't feel quite right in my hand anymore."

Seemingly unsure of what to say or do, Omen reluctantly stretched his arm out and grasped the shaft with one careful hand and hefted it with apparent ease. He turned it around so that the butt of the axe was nearly touching the floor and grabbed the shaft with the other hand before leveling it out a bit. He weighed it and shrugged.

"It looks nothing like a hammer, but I'll be damned if it isn't the closest I've felt from a weapon," Omen said as he shifted it around a bit to get a feel for it.

Fearless smirked, obviously pleased with himself, before stepping away from Omen and instructing Cody, "I'd prefer you not use arrows yet, we'll get a look at that with a target later. For now just use your sword and see if you can't hit me."

"Are you sure?" Cody asked. He was positive he couldn't land a blow on the skilled warrior if he tried, but it wasn't impossible for even the mightiest of warriors to come by an accident.

Fearless laughed a deep, warm-hearted laugh before answering, "I'm sure. If you're even better than I expected I have my armor on underneath my tunic."