Nentarli [COMPLETE]

~ Twenty-six ~

We were using the same garden that we had our hand to hand combat lessons with Kaleb and Blaike, but instead of machines and apparatus everywhere, there were targets. They were painted in various colours, of all different shapes and sizes, and they were all placed at varying distances away from us.

Kayle looked extra smug when we walked up to stand them, finishing off the last of our breakfast. Blaike and Kaleb greeted us, the latter was still munching on whatever was in his mouth but we formed a line in front of Kayle. I noticed that he was wearing a leather brace on his arm. Behind him was a crate with various weapons and gadgets inside, long-arm had to be something to do with long range weapons; except we had already done a lesson based on them.

Kayle began to pace back and forth in front of us while he spoke, "Today you will be learning the skills it takes to be a Long-Arm." I frowned at his terminology, as though long-arm was a title, not a name of a lesson or skill. "You will learn what it takes to hit a target using your own will and force, not relying on a weapon to do it for you."

He sounded almost military-like and Emy snorted next to me.

"Kayle, this isn't the Army. Chill out, just show us what to do and let's go."

I smirked at her but Kayle was having none of it, he walked to stand in front of her and stared down.

"Who is in charge of this lesson? Who knows what they are talking about? Both answers would be me, so be quiet or this lesson will get a lot more difficult!" He spoke in a Sergeant Major-esque voice and Emy looked like she wanted to headbutt him.

She kept quiet however and I got the feeling she was saving it up for later. Kayle resumed his pacing and his ranting, explaining the finer points of how his skill works and proceeding to show us the kinds of weapons that are Long-Arm based and those that do the work for you. A crossbow wasn't acceptable but a slingshot was, a catapult was unacceptable but a hammer-throw was fine.

The list went on and I figured he must have wasted an hour just talking, we didn't get to practice for another twenty minutes while he handed out leather wrist braces and explained the dangers. I was trying to get the image of someone's eye dangling out of its socket after a Slinger accident Kayle had described, when he called us up to practice throwing at the targets.

"I want the four of you to aim for any of the targets, just try to hit them with your Slingers and let us see what happens."

Kayle had a clipboard out and appeared to be taking notes, he looked like an overachieving PE teacher. It made me chuckle, I tried to hide it and turned to face the target range. I chose a bright red target not too far ahead, I armed my Slinger with one of the stones provided and began to swing it around just like Kayle had taught me. I released it and watched the stone fly away into a garden nearby, narrowly missing the head of a statue. I winced and watched the other stones miss all of their targets as well.

Kayle tutted loudly and shook his head, "I had expected better from Kaleb and Blaike, you have done this before."

Blaike half turned to him while loading his Slinger again, "Yes, a long time ago and we have not practiced since."

He swung the Slinger and managed to hit the outer edge of a bright green target.

Kayle smiled, "Very good Blaike, practice is the key. So everyone, back to it!"

By this point, everyone seemed to be getting annoyed with Kayle but since he was our instructor, we did as we were told and continued to practice. Emy and I missed nearly every shot, Blaike and Kaleb became better after every throw and soon they were hitting every target. I felt as though as I was improving, I eventually managed to hit a few of the bigger targets that were positioned closer, as did Emy.