The Water Warrior(Book 1)(Completed)

Chapter 11: Swords and Knives

Another beautiful morning greeted Aqua and Firestar as they strolled through the Forbidden Forest to meet Darkmoon for training. Several days had passed since Darkmoon had met BlackHawk and let's just say he did not really like him, but you could not tell because he never showed much emotion anyway.

     In the past few weeks Aqua has steadily grown stronger in hand-to-hand combat and using her powers, now it was time for her to start using weapons and that was just what Darkmoon had planned for today.

     As Aqua and Firestar approached the clearing they had been practicing at these last few weeks, but there were a few different things set up this time. In trees perched some obvious critters such as squirrels and birds, each of which was fake because they did not move as they drew nearer. Not only did the stuffed animals catch Aqua's eyes, but the targets set up about seventy feet away. There were three in total, two of which were the traditional white with black rings and a red circle in the middle, but the third was painted a dark grey and shaped like a person with the bullseye in the center of its chest.

     Not only the targets were new, but the table, made out of tree logs and large limbs, displayed a variety of weapons such as throwing knives, two swords, a recurve bow with arrows, a crossbow, a wooden handgun and a metal rifle that she saw the Lamadians had when she snuck into Sinergy's castle only a few days ago.

     Darkmoon was standing in front of the table facing away from them in his human form, which was odd for him. Then out of nowhere, he turned around, knife in hand, and threw it at Aqua, but she saw this and dove to the left onto the ground out of the way of the knife which embedded itself in a tree about ten feet away. If she had not moved in time, the knife would currently be in her chest. Breathing heavily like she had had a heart attack, Aqua responded to Darkmoon's actions, "Are you insane?! I could have been killed!"

     "Your reflexes are very good," he replied. "Better than Firestar's."

     Aqua got up from the ground and dusted herself off as Firestar spoke, "True, I ended up with the knife cutting the side of my ribs."

     "You knew?" Aqua asked ignoring his comment. Firestar replied with a shrug of his shoulders. "Come, there is much to do today," said Darkmoon motioning for Aqua to stand at his side. Reluctantly she joined the man who had just thrown a knife at her. "Today you will use each of these weapons I have laid out before you. You may pick which one you would like to start with, but know this; when you are in a fight, you may not be given that luxury." Aqua nodded her head, telling him she understood.

     Next, she proceeded to pick out her weapon. Aqua's hand hovered over the crossbow, but she changed her mind and picked up one of the two swords, she figured the other was for her opponent she would soon face which was either Firestar or Darkmoon himself. "Good choice," Darkmoon stated after Aqua made her choice. "Firestar would you mind helping with this demonstration. Don't worry; I won't make him hurt you like last time." Aqua breathed a sigh of relief, she really was not in the mood to become another punching bag.

     Darkmoon picked up the other sword and threw it to Firestar who turned into a human and caught it with ease. This simple action revealed to Aqua that Firestar was indeed trained in the art of fencing. Of course he knows how to sword fight, thought Aqua to herself. "First I am going to have you fight as best as you can without any help from me. I want to see how much you know. When the fight has concluded, I will teach you different techniques and tricks to use in a real battle," Darkmoon spoke to Aqua as Firestar positioned himself in front of her.

     Darkmoon moved out of the way of the soon-to-be dueling couple before saying, "You may start whenever."

     Out of the two of them, Aqua was actually the first to start. She advanced forward with a gleam in her eye, then started with a thrust, but Firestar was clearly surprised and just barely dodged her attack by mere inches. Apparently Aqua did know what she was doing, at least a little, but that just meant Firestar could bring it a little harder. Aqua returned to her original position but did not wait for Firestar and began to fight. As Aqua took a calculated swing at Firestar, he blocked her attack with a parry. The two pushed their blades in the others direction hoping to overpower the other. "How are you so good at this?" Firestar had to ask. "I watched a lot of pirate movies," Aqua replied with a smirk. Firstar nodded his head then managed to disengage by giving a harsh shove with his blade.