And (N)one Shall Remain

“When they said that there'd been many others before us, I had hoped that at least one of them would’ve invented a gun, but alas,” sighed Ethan while the soldier assigned to them led him and Alissa on a tour of sorts of the castle’s Armory. There were all sorts of melee and projectile weapons either standing on racks or hanging on the walls, but the most modern thing Ethan saw there was at most some crossbows that had pulleys and winches on them, as well as a couple bows that had a similar system.

 

“Ah, Chosen One must have referred to the Forlorn Weapon,” said the soldier with an understanding nod. The soldier in question was a young woman with freckles on her cheeks that looked barely any older than Ethan and Alissa, though she carried herself with a firm confidence in her steps that the two youngsters lacked.

 

“What do you mean forlorn?” he asked.

 

“Our history books recorded many attempts from summoned heroes to reproduce some sort of weapon from their world, that had always ended in failure no matter what. Several cases even caused destruction that claimed many lives in the failed attempts, so it had since become a story used to warn future heroes about it,” explained the young soldier. “My father also worked in the Royal Armory before me, so our family was very familiar with the stories if you’re interested.”

 

“So you said every attempt to recreate these… weapons always end in failure?”

 

“That is so. The smaller scale attempts usually ended with a maimed worker or two, or at worst a death when the weapon exploded in their faces. Larger scale attempts had resulted in destroyed smithies and fires that consumed entire blocks of buildings before,” explained the young woman with a nod. “Nobody is certain why, but some said that such weapons were cursed and the gods would not suffer their existence in this world.”

 

“So someone or something in this world really doesn’t like guns for some reason, got it. Guess we’ll have to chalk off the gun production ideas off the plan for now,” said Ethan. Alissa recognized the obvious regret in his voice, and knew that he had really been thinking about doing it before. “I guess that narrowed down our options some.”

 

“Anyway, as nice as all these are,” said Ethan as he gestured to encompass the various weapons that glimmered around them, artifacts that very clearly glimmered with power even to Alissa’s untrained senses. “I don’t think we’d be able to use these in our current states, won’t we? Could you bring us to the section with things that’d be more suitable for our current capabilities? Ideally it’d be things that could last us a tier or two if there’s any.”

 

“Certainly, Chosen One,” said the young soldier with a polite bow. She then made a sweeping gesture as she led them back towards the areas near the entrance of the armory. “If you would please follow me? The equipment you asked for is this way.”

 

******************************

 

Ten minutes later…

 

“So you’d suggest this, huh?” asked Alissa to her old friend as she weighed the spear in her hand. The weapon had a long shaft of hardwood and a slim blade that tapered greatly to a very sharp point socketed on one end. The other end also had a simple conical metal spike covering it, which allowed both ends to be used offensively. The weapon itself was half again as long as Alissa was tall, and she thought she was already tall enough at six foot one.

 

“I mean, no offense, Allie, but You’ve never really used anything deadlier than a kitchen knife in your life, haven’t you?” asked Ethan as he tried to mollify her somewhat. It was honestly an unnecessary gesture on his part, as Alissa knew what Ethan had meant. She was indeed a complete beginner when it comes to things like fighting and weapons and the likes, and she admitted to it. “A spear’s about as simple as it gets for a beginner to use. Point the pointy end towards the enemy and just try to stab ‘em before they can get behind it.”

 

“Using it with a shield as well, though?” asked Alissa with some uncertainty as she hefted the shield Ethan chose for her with her left arm. The shield was a kite shield, a design that was wider at the top but tapered to a point at the bottom half. The whole thing was strapped to her forearm, with a grip she could grab with her hand for more stability. It looked sturdy enough, made out of wood covered with leather and secured with a metal rim.

 

“Try holding the spear around the halfway point,” suggested Ethan to his old friend. Alissa shifted her grip as he suggested, and suddenly found the long spear far easier to carry and use. It remained a rather unwieldy thing, though, with its length. “Once you get used to it then you can shift your grip further backwards, until you’re comfortable with that, then repeat as needed. In the end you’d want to be able to use it even while holding it from the other end.”

 

“Got it,” said Alissa as she gave a couple practice thrusts into empty air with the spear. It was a foreign movement to her, so she understood entirely too well what Ethan meant, and she also got his logic. She was a complete beginner at this sort of thing, and it was better for her to get used to something simpler rather than more complicated things. “What about this sword?”

 

“Ah, you’d want to keep that in its sheath until something comes way too close for you to use the spear,” said Ethan in reply. The sword she meant was a one-handed, single-edged blade with a slight curvature that terminated into a sharp point that was narrower than the rest of the blade. The upper end flared slightly outward and curved stronger, which probably made it more suitable for forceful chops, she thought. “Use the spear as much as you can, then drop it and use the sword when, not if, something gets too close.”

 

“Makes sense, I guess,” admitted Alissa as she leaned the spear against a wall and drew the sword - Ethan called it a Falchion she recalled - from its scabbard by her waist. The blade was light in her hand, very light in fact, probably not more than a couple pounds at most, and barely as long as her forearm in total length.

 

The light blade turned and moved with extreme ease, and she understood why Ethan had pointed it out to her over the other blades present around them. Some of the other blades were massive, almost as long as Alissa was tall, though all of them also looked a good bit thinner and lighter than she had expected, especially when she compared it to the ones she saw further in the armory.

 

Some of the weapons deeper in the armory resembled things she recalled seeing in Ethan’s video games a lot, like swords with blades nearly as wide as her torso, or hammers and axes with heads so large she doubted even strongmen would be able to lift them, much less make proper use of them. She guessed that as their levels increase, their stats would too, which would in turn enable them to perform superhuman feats like using some of the grossly oversized examples she saw.

 

“Oh. Right. You used to do track and field before you switched to B-Ball around high school, right?” asked Ethan as he noticed something amongst a pile of weapons in the armory.

 

“Yeah, mostly in the long jump and javelin throw, why?” asked Alissa back. She used to have some interest in track and field when she was younger, though once her growth spurt hit the basketball coach instantly scooped her up, and she proved almost exactly as good at basketball than what he expected. Some of her old track and field experience probably helped at that as well.

 

“Try carrying these on your back, see if they get in the way,” said Ethan as he tossed her some sort of quiver, though rather than an open one, it had six connected circular tubes, each of which contained something solid within. Alissa did as Ethan asked and found that it was pretty comfortable to carry, then she pulled out one of the things it contained out of curiosity.

 

What she found in her hand was a three foot long spear with a sharp metal tip that had a triangular cross section. The shaft was notably smaller and the whole thing was much lighter than the long spear she had, but she noticed the way they were balanced, and quickly reversed her grip on them as she felt their weight some more in her hands, the pose she took not unlike one with a javelin in hand.

 

“Throwing spears, huh? Neat.” she said with a nod. When she held the slender javelin the weight and feel of the balance instantly reminded her of the javelins she used to hurl during track and field practice, so she slipped into the pose naturally once it came to mind.

 

“Yeah. Think those were called Jerrids or something like that? Not too sure. My dad’s the one who geeks out over stuff like these. Gotta say I’m glad he kept dragging me over to them though. Never expected the shit I learned there would come in handy like this,” said Ethan with a smile on his face. “Come to think of it, I should get myself a set as well. These’ll be easier to use than throwing axes for sure.”

 

“Good idea, yea,” said Alissa as she nodded, still getting a feel of the javelin in her hand as she looked towards Ethan once more. “What’s that piece you got there, by the way? I don’t think I’ve seen one of those before?”

 

“Oh, this? This is called a pollaxe,” said Ethan as he lifted the weapon he had set leaning against the wall next to him. The weapon was noticeably shorter than Alissa’s own long spear. It was about as long as Ethan was tall, so about an inch or two more than her height, and had a spike on one end and a spearhead on the other.

 

That was where the similarity ended though. Underneath the spearhead was an axehead set perpendicular to the shaft, counter-balanced by a hammerhead on the opposite side, as well as two more shorter spikes on the other two sides of the shaft. Ethan held in it both hands unlike how he showed her to hold the spear, and gave a couple swings with the pollaxe to demonstrate to her.

 

“I figured since dad would drag me over to his gang every now and then I might as well have fun there. Got pretty good with something real close to this one,” he said as he deftly struck through the air with the weapon. “When I saw that they got one like this in the armory, it was an easy choice, really. Now I just need to find a shield that could be modified to attach to my armor’s shoulder so I could have one to some degree while using this.”

 

“What do you mean?”

 

“Y’know… just kinda have it like hang off the shoulder while maybe strapped to my upper arm or so. Won’t be much use other than for things coming from that side, but I can always unlatch it and use it normally when I need to,” said Ethan as he struggled to properly describe what he meant to Alissa. His gesturing allowed her to get at least part of the idea, though.

 

She noticed that he also picked out a short sword for himself, one even shorter than the one he picked for her, though it had a double-edged leaf-shaped blade. It reminded her a lot of the sort she saw in history classes about the roman period, though with a different kind of handle and guard compared to those. “Gonna use that one with the shield, huh?”

 

“This? Yeah. It’s a short one but that’s what the shield’s for. Figured it’d be better for me to stand in front and intercede while you stab ‘em from the back with that spear, rather than the other way around,” said Ethan with a nod. “I mean, nothing against you, Allie, but you’re the one who’s way newer and less prepared for all this. At least I got some things I learnt before that I can use in this sort of situation.”

 

“I get it, no worry,” she said with a shake of her head. “Won’t deny that all this… getting summoned into another world and made to fight some great evil isn’t going all the way over my head. I’m just not stupid enough to have a breakdown over it. Not like having a mental breakdown would help us get out of this situation anyway.”

 

“Heh. I get ya. Just gotta hope that prick Smith gets his mind in the right place sooner rather than later. From what we’ve known so far we’re already batting while down a man. Wouldn’t do to be down another before things even get started,” he replied. “Either way, I expect they’d have people who know how to use all sorts of stuff ready to teach us, since they gave us free rein of this place. I can’t wait.”

 

******************************

 

The next day, Ethan’s guess proved to be correct, as a grizzled old knight with one eye and a fake leg - noticeable from the way he walked - was assigned to teach them how to use their weapons. Alissa had to admit that the old knight reminded her of her trainer back in the track and fields club, just with several times the intensity.

 

He had them drill various basic movements with the weapons until their arms felt almost like it would fall off from the fatigue. The old knight - Sir Henri Inolet by name - insisted that they train until they could execute the movements without thinking, until it became a reflex to them, or as he said it more descriptively… a second nature.

 

“Once you have those movements as a second nature to you, until you can instinctively react properly with them even if someone were to ambush you in your sleep, that’s when you can call yourself a proper warrior!” said the old knight. To his credit, despite his disabilities, the old knight joined them during the drills and showed them examples of what he meant first-hand.

 

The old man even sparred with both of them at the same time and handily served them their collective asses on a silver platter to boot, which to be fair was no surprise, as despite his handicap, the old man was a fourth-tier elite of the Kingdom after all. He was crude with his words at times, and very demanding of his “students”, but neither Ethan nor Alissa could deny that the man knew what he was doing.

 

By the third day of training, Alissa got to the point where the old knight gave some approval to the way she used the spear and sword both. Ethan had achieved his approval with his use of the pollaxe even earlier, but then again, he had more experience - if not that much - compared to her in that sort of thing. On the other hand, when it came to their training with the throwing spears they got for themselves, things went the other way around.

 

Once Alissa fixed her form - because throwing a javelin in combat focused more on force and accuracy rather than distance - she easily landed her javelins - or Jarids as the locals called them - accurately into vital spots on the training target most of the time. In contrast, Ethan had a hard time even hitting the target to begin with at first, at least until Alissa pointed out that it wasn’t too different from how he’d thrown a football across the field, just in a more direct way. Then he started nailing the practice target with his throws better.

 

They were even accompanied by Joshua on the practice field at times from the fourth day onward. Joshua mostly remained taciturn and quiet as he practiced with a crossbow - as his class related more to magic most of his learning was done in the libraries of the castle rather than the practice field, as the weapons practice was more for emergencies - but at least he was present, if still looking rather shell-shocked somewhat by the situation they were caught up in.

 

Time flew quickly as they trained in the day, and wrestled with their thoughts at night, but before the three of them knew it, a month already passed since the day they were first summoned into this world. The old knight had considered them “adequate” in skill when the King asked him for his assessment of them, and for the first time, the newly summoned heroes were sent out on their first hunt.

 

Into the dungeon.