Rabbit's Foot

My family’s field supposedly used to be very bountiful, but I’d only known it as a mini wasteland. Mom had told me that during the monster stampede 10 years ago, a particularly nasty Acidic Ostrilorpe rampaged through the field, and the acid had made the soil barren. It also killed my dad when he tried driving it off. Mom still spit in disgust every time she saw or even heard about an ostrich. Since the farmer no longer had a farm, Mom had to start taking odd jobs to make ends meet, and Allium had left to become an adventurer as soon as her Tutorial was over. A silver lining for me, though, was that the field made for a perfect training ground for Corby and me.

“Alright, recruits, line up!” Allium’s voice boomed out, sending Corbin and I scrambling to line up in front of her. My eyes fixated on the deep-blue hair she had tucked under her trusty black cap in a ponytail.

I can’t wait til I’m old enough to finally choose my hair color! Mom’s is all faded, but Sis’ looks so cool!

“Now, the first thing we need to do is cover the basics. Do either of you know how the System’s stats relate to physical combat?”

“I-I believe the Strength enhances the damage you can do, Dexterity handles how well you dodge and handle a weapon, and Vitality helps with how much damage you can take?” Corbin said with trepidation.

“Good, but not full marks,” Allium said. She took a step back, and then suddenly vanished. Within a blink of an eye, she was standing in front of me, having taken the sword from my hand, and was pointing it in front of me.

“Strength and Dexterity are good and all, but if you don’t have enough Perception to track what you or your opponent are doing, then it doesn’t really matter how hard you hit.” Allium handed the sword back to Nymia. “We rabbitfolk have a bit of an advantage in this with our species skills, but this doesn’t apply to all races, especially those who aren’t beastfolk with keener senses.”

My eyes were wide with disbelief and awe.

My sister is the coolest!

I looked over at Corbin and his mouth was still open in shock. When I returned my gaze to Allium, I could tell she was a little giddy from our reactions, but trying to maintain a stoic face.

“Vitality also covers resistance to physical statuses like being on fire or getting stunned by lightning. There’s also stamina. It’s not a stat on its own, but it’s influenced by the physical stats. It takes more energy to swing a sword with 10 strength than 100. Same goes with running with low Dexterity or fighting for long periods with low Vitality. Lots of physical attack skills cost stamina to use, so be careful with how you spend energy. Trying to use a skill when you don’t have the stamina to back it up is a sure way to get yourself killed.”

I raised my hand. “What about your sparky magic stuff?”

Allium snickered at me. “Yes, the ‘sparky magic stuff.’ That uses the other stats: Intelligence, Mana, and Willpower. Intelligence is the stat that determines how much damage your magic does. Mana affects how big your pool of magical energy is. Trying to use magic when you have no mana not only doesn’t work, but also hurts like a motherf—“ Allium paused.

Oooh, Allie said a swear!

“Err, anyways, it doesn’t feel good. Willpower deals with how fast mana regenerates and the ability to overcome mental statuses. It also helps you resist authority skills and pressure from people and monsters much more powerful than you. Some monsters can just kill you dead if you don’t have enough Willpower to resist the pressure and end up paralyzed.”

Allium took out her sword and it suddenly started sparking with light and energy.

“One of my classes helps me channel lightning energy, or ‘sparky stuff’ as my adorable Cinnabun calls it, into my sword. The sword is made of special metal called Parlium that allows it to act as my spell focus. It cost me a mountain of gold coins; I was eating broth and monster meat for months saving up for it.”

I was trying to wrap my head around anything costing even a handful of gold coins much when, but Allium was already moving on.

It’s a low mana cost to just channel it through the sword, but it’s a drain over time, so I need a lot of Willpower.”

She turned off her magic and sheathed her sword.

“Now, onto the fun stuff,” she said, clapping her hands. “Both of you come at me. I’ll use one finger per hand to parry. If you manage a hit once on anything other than that finger, you win; I’ll bring you each an extra cinnamon bun next trip. If I win, I’m eating your buns in front of you next time.” Allium grinned as she put down her challenge.

Corbin and I looked at each other and nodded. We leapt at her and tried to strike as hard as we could…and both fell on our faces as she gracefully side-stepped us. We could hear her giggling behind us.

So big swings aren’t gonna cut it. Heh, cut it.

I laughed a little, drawing confused looks from both of my onlookers.

“I was just thinking that taking big swings wasn’t gonna cut it,” I said with pride.

Corbin groaned next to me as he got up, but Allium, brilliant sister that she was, recognized the brilliance of my pun and let out a laugh.

“Bonus points for being right and making a pun out of it,” Allium said. Instead of one big wild swing, try to strike a balance. Every attack should be made with the intention to kill, or bonk in this case, but never depend on any single attack. Let your movements chain into one another, so you can pressure your opponent. Now try again.”

Corbin and I got back up and tried to circle around her on opposite sides. I tried doing shallower strikes while Corby attacked from the other side, but Allium kept mocking us by dodging and blocking our attacks with her finger while yawning. Then she shot me a smirk and twirled away. As I watched her, I felt a sudden thwack across my face and fell backwards.

I looked up to see a stammering Corbin.

“Oh gods, I am so so sorry.” Corbin was starting to tear up.

“I’m fine, so don’t worry. Good strike, though,” I say, trying to reassure him.

Allium chimed up as Corbin wiped away tears. “So, as we’ve learned, attacking at the same time is great in theory, but unless you have excellent coordination and chemistry with your partners, it’s very easy for your numbers advantage to be turned against you. If you’re fighting the same opponent, try to time your strikes so that each of you is attacking at any given time, making it harder to defend.”

Corbin extended a hand and helped me back up. I felt my competitive spirit flaring.

That delicious cinnamon bun will be mine.

I looked over at Corbin.

Err, ours. The cinnamon bun will be ours…

We resumed our attack. We went on and on, with Allium casually deflecting, avoiding, and booping me on the nose. As we went on, my mind got clearer. All my focus and energy was on the task before me. I began to think of my next attack before I even swung the last one. As the attack continued, I thought I had finally found an opening. I feinted an overhead strike and grinned as she raised her finger to block it. Instead, I went for a direct thrust. I could see the sword getting closer and closer to cinnamon-bun-flavored victo—

…

I woke up with a start, then winced as my entire body felt like lead. Allium was carrying me on her back like I weighed nothing.

“What happened?” I asked groggily.

“You kinda wore yourself out there. We were out there for hours. Corbin went home without you even noticing,” Allium explained.

“H-huh?”

“Yeah, you were in the zone. You nearly had me at the end there. Props on that feint. Didn’t think you had that much trickiness in you.”

“Nearly? Does that mean…”

“Yup, I totally won. I’ll be eating delicious cinnamon buns in front of you when I come back. But maybe I’ll share a little since you worked so hard. Who knows? I’m a fickle bunny, after all.”

“How long are you staying this time?”

“I’ll stay until the stampede is over. Need to meet back up with my party.”

“Your party?”

“Oh yeah, you’d love them. I met them during my most recent trip. We call ourselves ‘One Fur All.’ Get it? Because we’re all beastfolk!”

We both chuckled.

“Maybe I’ll see if they'll visit with me next time. I’d love to introduce you.”

I squeezed my arms around her as we approached the front door.

“Hey, Allie. Thanks for today. Love you.”

“Aww, love you, too, Cinnabun. Besides, I’m sure you’ll pay off all those cinnamon buns and lessons when you’re a big bad master swordswoman, right?”

“Of course!” I said proudly. “Wait, ‘lessons?’ As in more than one?”

“Well, duh. You didn’t think you were done training after one lesson, did you? I’m gonna whip you into Guild-quality shape by the time we’re done.”

I was thrilled, but also somewhat terrified of how brutal her training regiment was going to be.

Eh, I’ll probably be fine…right?